Los Angeles, CA - June 06: LAPD clear the street outside the Metropolitan Detention Center as demonstrators gather in response to ICE raids in Los Angeles on Friday, June 6, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Los Angeles, California – The Pentagon will deploy hundreds of active-duty U.S. Marines to Los Angeles this week, fulfilling President Donald Trump’s threat to send more federal troops into cities where protests over immigration enforcement have escalated tensions. According to a U.S. official speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, 700 Marines from the Twentynine Palms base will be sent “temporarily” to the city, despite no major disturbances being reported on Monday.
The move follows the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops ordered over the weekend, a decision Governor Gavin Newsom has condemned as “illegal and immoral.” Now, the arrival of regular armed forces marks an alarming new chapter in the standoff between federal authority and local governance.
While the White House has insisted the Marines will serve only in a “support role,” assisting law enforcement and protecting federal facilities, the implications are unmistakable. Historically, such deployments are rare and fraught. Under U.S. law, military personnel are barred from domestic law enforcement duties unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act—a measure last used in Los Angeles in 1992 during the Rodney King unrest.
President Trump has not formally invoked the act, but the situation remains “fluid,” according to federal sources. At a White House roundtable Monday, Trump said the deployment had prevented what he described as a looming catastrophe. “If I didn’t get involved … you had a disaster happening,” he said. “We got in just in time.”
But state officials see it differently. Governor Newsom accused the president of using military force to stoke division, calling the move “an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the state would sue the Trump administration, alleging that the federalization of the National Guard is unlawful.
This is not the first time in recent memory that the military has been called upon in domestic protests, but the scope and political overtones are striking. Some military leaders are already warning against the precedent being set. “It casts the military in a terrible light,” retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton said. “This is the politicization of the armed forces.”
As of Monday, approximately 300 National Guard troops were already stationed in Los Angeles, with the rest expected by midweek. With Marine units now en route, California finds itself at the center of a deepening national rift over immigration, federal power, and the limits of presidential authority in American cities.
