President Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to California on Saturday. The move, which is detailed in a presidential memorandum, cites “numerous incidents of violence and disorder have recently occurred and threaten to continue” in response to operations by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The first National Guard soldiers began arriving into Los Angeles County early Sunday morning.
The memo states that the mobilization will be “at least 2,000 National Guard personnel” and that it will last for at least 60 days, or at the discretion of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Additionally, the memo states that the secretary of defense will be permitted to “employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property.”
The announcement came in the early evening of Saturday, June 7 as protests continued in pockets of Los Angeles County. It’s the first time since the 1992 Los Angeles riots that the president has federalized the National Guard.
The mobilization comes in the wake of protests against federal immigration raids around Los Angeles County that started on Friday, June 6. The protests, in response to ICE and and other federal agents raiding locations in Downtown Los Angeles, MacArthur Park and the cities of Paramount and Compton, led to stand-offs between law enforcement and protestors, with authorities repeatedly using tear gas and other less than lethal weapons against people.
Federal agents in tactical gear, including members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, carried out immigration raids at several locations Friday, including Home Depots and a fashion store in Downtown Los Angeles’ warehouse district. Many were also detained while going to check-ins at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles. Several dozen people were arrested. Protests quickly broke out with immigration advocates, union members and community members responding to the sudden actions.
In response to Trump’s declaration, California Gov. Gavin Newsom took to social media on Saturday, calling the move “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
The troops have deployed to the area around the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, the site of protests the last two days, and to Paramount as well, per local media. U.S. Northern Command confirmed Sunday morning that the first soldiers from the California National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team were already on the scene.
The president called up the National Guard using Title 10, a federal legal provision that allows for National Guard troops to be federalized in specific circumstances. He did not use the Insurrection Act of 1807 that allows the president to federalize National Guard troops to use against “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”
On the social media platform X, Hegseth posted on Saturday night that he was considering mobilizing active duty Marines based at Camp Pendleton and wrote that they are on “high alert.” Newsom criticized the move, calling it “deranged behavior.”
In the 1992 Los Angeles riots that came out of the Rodney King beating led to local and state officials bringing in the military to support law enforcment. California’s National Guard deployed to the city, eventually joined by soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division and members of 1st Marine Division. The riots only lasted a few days, but the National Guard remained in Los Angeles County for roughly a month.
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