Roughly 700 active-duty US Marines who were mobilized last month to respond to protests in Los Angeles are being sent home from the mission, the Pentagon said Monday.
“With stability returning to Los Angeles, the Secretary has directed the redeployment of the 700 Marines whose presence sent a clear message: lawlessness will not be tolerated,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Monday, adding that their “rapid response, unwavering discipline, and unmistakable presence were instrumental in restoring order.”
Parnell announced last week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had released 2,000 California National Guard members with the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from duty.
The Marines, with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, were mobilized in June and assisted in protecting federal buildings and personnel. They were intended to provide the task force overseeing the federal protection mission in LA “with adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage of the area in support of the lead federal agency,” US Northern Command said at the time.
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There are still another roughly 2,000 California Army National Guard soldiers assigned to the mission who were mobilized later in June.
The Marines’ deployment to LA was immediately met with criticism as a significant escalation of the use of the military by President Donald Trump. LA Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said at the time that the arrival of Marines “absent clear coordination” would present “a significant logistical and operational challenges for those of us charged with safeguarding this city.”
The Marines, like the National Guardsmen who were activated under Title 10 status, were prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity, which is outlawed under the Insurrection Act.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement in June that the “level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented,” adding the Trump administration was “mobilizing the best in class branch of the U.S. military against its own citizens.”
A senior Pentagon official said during a congressional hearing last month that the mobilization of the Marines and National Guardsmen was estimated to cost $134 million.
“The current estimated cost is $134 million, which is largely just [temporary duty] cost, travel, housing, food, etc.,” Bryn MacDonnell, a special assistant to the Secretary of Defense and official performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Asked further about the funding for the mobilization, MacDonnell said it would come from other operation and maintenance accounts.
During the same hearing, Hegseth aggressively defended sending US troops to LA, arguing that “all three” requirements in the US Code that authorizes the president to federalize the National Guard applied to the situation.
“Let’s talk about the US Code … as a legal basis that the president used, cites three examples and circumstances for the guard: invasion by a foreign nation, rebellion or dangerous rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States, or the president is unable, with regular forces to execute the laws of the United States,” Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar said. “Which authority is triggered here to justify the use?”
“I don’t know, you just read it yourself, and people can listen themselves, but it sounds like all three to me,” Hegseth responded.
“The governor of the California has failed to protect his people, along with the mayor of Los Angeles, and so President Trump has said he will protect our agents, and our guard and Marines are proud to do it,” he later added.
