Trump sends Marines and more National Guard members to Los Angeles
[June 10, 2025]
By
LOLITA C. BALDOR, TARA COPP, JASON DEAREN and TIM SULLIVAN
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700
Marines are headed to Los Angeles on orders from President Donald Trump,
escalating a military presence local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom
don’t want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for
safely handling protests.
An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday,
which saw the most violence during three days of protests driven by
anger over Trump’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that
critics say are breaking apart migrant families.
Monday's demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully
attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal
complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being
held following workplace raids across the city.
Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and
Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public
safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they
don’t need the help.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was
confident in the police department’s ability to handle large-scale
demonstrations and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with
the police department would present a “significant logistical and
operational challenge” for them.
Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops”
in a post on the social platform X.
“This isn’t about public safety,” Newsom said. “It’s about stroking a
dangerous President’s ego.”
The protests began Friday after federal immigration authorities arrested
more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air
downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set
self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber
bullets and flash-bang grenades.
Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening
Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana,
California, and Dallas and Austin, Texas.
California pushes back against presence of federal troops
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of
National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters
that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.
“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and
unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,” Bonta said. He
sought a court order declaring Trump’s use of the Guard unlawful and
asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.
Trump said the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had
not deployed the Guard.
U.S. officials said the Marines were being deployed to protect federal
property and personnel, including immigration agents. A convoy of 10 to
15 buses with blacked-out windows and escorted by sheriff’s vehicles,
left the base at Twentynine Palms in the desert east of Los Angeles late
Monday and headed toward the city, stopping around 1 a.m. at Naval
Weapons Station Seal Beach, around 20 miles (35 kilometers) south of
downtown Los Angeles.
Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between
the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd
control.
Early protests remained peaceful
On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a
union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta,
who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta’s arrest
Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for
people angry over the administration's crackdown. He is the president of
the Service Employees International Union California, which represents
thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers.
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People take cover as a fire work explodes during a protest near the
Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June
8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with
people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta’s release.
Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers
outside the downtown federal detention center where Huerta was being
held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with
organizers at times to de-escalate moments of tension.
There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks
including the federal detention facility, while most in the immense
city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on
peaceful streets.
As the crowd thinned, police began pushing protesters away from the
area, firing crowd-control munitions as people chanted, "Peaceful
protest.” Officers became more aggressive in their tactics in the
evening, occasionally surging forward to arrest protesters that got
too close. At least a dozen people remaining in the busy Little
Tokyo neighborhood were surrounded by police and detained.
Other protests took shape Monday across LA County. Outside a
clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news
conference that their loved ones be released.
The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the
warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any
information about him.
“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,”
Vasquez's brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last
name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities.
Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend protests.
Authorities say one was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov
cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line
of officers.
Guard deployment is a nearly unprecedented escalation
The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a
state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its
governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to
hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's
permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops
to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan
Center for Justice.
In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing
him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or
danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the
United States.”
___
Sullivan reported from Minneapolis and Baldor reported from
Washington. Associated Press writers Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles,
Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, Hallie Golden in Seattle,
Stefanie Dazio in Berlin, Jake Offenhartz in New York, and Greg Bull
in Seal Beach, California contributed to this report.
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