About 700 infantry Marines from Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms have been given the green light to deploy to Los Angeles in support of the Army National Guard, a spokesman from U.S. Northern Command said Monday, June 9.
The order came from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who on Sunday, June 8, called up the guard after violent protests broke out over immigration enforcement.
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About 1,700 members of the California Army National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are in Los Angeles, Paramount and Compton. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines would support the soldiers, who have been placed under federal command, to protect federal personnel and buildings, said John Ingle, a spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command.
By 2:45 p.m. Monday afternoon, the Marines’ status was moved to “activated” for deployment. The number of Marines requested by the Northern Command, which is overseeing this operation, was increased from 500 to 700, Ingle said.
“That means they are no longer preparing to deploy, but they’ve been given the thumbs up to begin the process to move out,” Ingle said. A second spokesperson said later on Monday, the Marines would leave the desert base on Monday night.
The Marines, a 1st Marine Division infantry battalion, will be “kitted up similar to what the National Guard uses,” he added, but didn’t specify the actual weapons and vehicles that would be used.
The unit is trained in de-escalation, crowd control and in standing rules for the use of force, Northern Command said.
Deploying the Marines is leading some to call the order an “overreach of authoritarian power,” especially as the military servicemembers could find themselves facing off with civilians.
“Our Marines are trained for deadly combat, not law enforcement,” Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, said in a statement. “This politicizes our Armed Forces and it clearly will not end well. If the president truly wants law and order, he must de-escalate, order our service members back to their bases, and allow our courageous state and local law enforcement officers to do their jobs.”
The state has sued the Trump administration over the deployment of the National Guard. State officials said the move was unnecessary and Attorney General Rob Bonta said it “trampled” California’s sovereignty.
“The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented — mobilizing the best-in-class branch of the U.S. military against its own citizens,” the governor’s press office said in a tweet Monday about the readying of the Marines.
Ingle said the use of the Marines comes by order of the president and the secretary of defense.
“They can be deployed to protect federal employees and buildings, similar to Marines who were used to fight the California wildfires and those who were sent to the border,” Ingle said.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell, on Monday, released a statement that he had not received notification that the Marines were inbound.
“The possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles — absent clear coordination — presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged to safeguard this city,” McDonnell said. “The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, has decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so effectively and professionally. That said, our top priority is the safety of the public and the officers on the ground. We are urging open and continuous lines of communication between all agencies to prevent confusion and avoid escalation.”
Levin called Trump’s use of the Marines an “astounding overreach of authoritarian power,” adding that the state has not asked for the National Guard, let alone the Marines.
“I support the right to protest peacefully—it’s essential for a healthy democracy. I also strongly condemn the agitators who are committing acts of violence. Their behavior is unacceptable and they are giving Trump the images he wants,” Levin added.
“Our state and local authorities have the capacity to handle the protests in Los Angeles,” Levin said. “By deploying warfighters to American cities, Trump is escalating and destabilizing a volatile situation. He is putting our service members in an untenable situation where they will be asked to repress civilians.”
Under an 1878 law called the Posse Comitatus Act, it is normally illegal to use federal troops on domestic soil for policing purposes.
But an 1807 law, the Insurrection Act, creates an exception to that ban for situations in which the president decides that “unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States,” make it “impracticable” to enforce federal law.
A president last used federal troops for domestic policing purposes in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush invoked the Insurrection Act to suppress widespread rioting that broke out in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted police officers who had been videotaped beating a Black motorist, Rodney King.
In that case, though, then Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley had asked for federal assistance in restoring order.
Presidents have not used federal troops without the permission of state governors since the civil rights movement, when Southern governors defied court orders to desegregate public schools.
Staff Reporter Kaitlyn Schallhorn and the New York Times contributed to this report.