Half of the California National Guard troops who were federalized and deployed to Los Angeles in response to unrest sparked by immigration-enforcement raids in the area will return to their normal duties, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Southern California leaders, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Orange County Rep. Lou Correa, responded quickly to the announcement from the Pentagon that 2,000 federalized California National Guard troops were being released from their federal assignments.
Newsom, for example, said Trump “has been exploiting” the National Guard for more than a month “as his political pawns.”
“Thousands of members are still federalized in Los Angeles for no reason and unable to carry out their critical duties across the state,” Newsom said. “End this theater and send everyone home.”
Trump’s action, Bass said, “happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat.
“My message today to Angelenos is clear,” she added. “I will never stop fighting for this city. We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in L.A., but throughout our country.”
Bass was scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday evening to more fully respond to the Pentagon’s announcement.
In early June, President Donald Trump deployed about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active duty Marines to respond to a series of protests against immigration raids in and around Los Angeles. Trump ordered that 2,000 California National Guard troops be brought under federal control and deployed to Los Angeles to protect federal facilities and personnel in light of protests that erupted mainly in the downtown area. Another 2,000 troops were later added to that deployment, along with 700 U.S. Marines.
Immigration enforcement activities in early June across Los Angeles and Orange counties sparked protests and heightened fear among many immigrant families. On June 7, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the federal building in downtown Los Angeles and marched through the area to denounce the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles.
“The days of chaos ruling the streets are over,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said that day. “Either obey the law, or go to jail, there’s no third option.”
By July 7, federal officers on horseback cruised a mostly empty MacArthur Park near downtown. Defense officials had said about 90 California National Guard members would be there in addition to more than a dozen military vehicles to help protect immigration officers during their raid at the park.
City officials said they didn’t believe there were any arrests at the park. The Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t say whether anyone had been arrested or what the operation was about.
Correa, for his part, welcomed the news Tuesday but said he also hopes to see troops be taken out of Santa Ana.
Given all the ICE activity in the area, the Santa Ana Democrat said, the area “is as boring as it comes.”
The presence of the National Guard is negatively impacting the community, citizens and non-citizens alike, Correa said.
“It’s an occupational force,” he said. “It’s not only people without documents. It’s also U.S.-born citizens who have gotten apprehended by ICE.
“This is unacceptable,” Correa added. “We’re not a communist regime; we’re not a dictatorial nation where you control us. We have freedoms.”
The National Guard’s deployment to L.A., Newsom said, had pulled troops away from their families and civilian work “to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles.”
“While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize,” the governor added, “the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities.”
Trump, though, has contended that “there has been an invasion” of migrants entering the country without legal permission.
But that wasn’t the assessment of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine.
“I don’t see any foreign, state-sponsored folks invading,” he said to lawmakers at the time, “but I’ll be mindful of the fact that there have been some border issues.”
Local officials contested the deployment in multiple ways, including in court.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, in fact, found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from Newsom. But an appeals court allowed the president to retain control of National Guard troops he sent to Los Angeles in response to protests over immigration raids.
In a unanimous, 38-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that conditions in the L.A. area were sufficient for the president to deploy the troops.
“Affording appropriate deference to the President’s determination,” read the unsigned opinion, “we conclude that he likely acted within his authority in federalizing the National Guard.”
The three-judge panel included two Trump appointees and one of former President Joe Biden.
Reporters Kaitlyn Schallhorn and Teresa Liu provided content for this story.