President Donald Trump ordered more California National Guard troops to be placed under federal command on Monday evening. They join more than 2,700 California National Guardsmen and Marines already ordered to protect federal buildings and personnel as protests in Los Angeles County against federal immigration raids continue for the fourth straight day.
“At the order of the President, the Department of Defense is mobilizing an additional 2,000 California National Guard to be called into federal service to support ICE & to enable federal law-enforcement officers to safely conduct their duties,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote in a post on X.
The move comes only a few hours after roughly 700 U.S. Marines assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, based out of Twentynine Palms, California — approximately three hours east of Los Angeles — were ordered to deploy to Los Angeles County. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell issued a statement saying that the Los Angeles Police Department could handle the demonstrations on its own. He also noted the “logistical and operational challenge” of the Marines coming to Los Angeles without coordinating with local police.
As of midday Monday, only 300 soldiers from the California National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team were in Los Angeles County, out of the 2,100 put under federal control. It’s unclear when or if more will arrive. In Downtown Los Angeles, the site of many demonstrations, the troops mostly stayed on federal property, some with riot shields, while local law enforcement directly engaged protesters.
Small protests against immigration raids broke out on Friday, June 6 after heavily armed federal agents carried out several small operations around Los Angeles County. Protests grew over the weekend as local law enforcement fired tear gas and less than lethal weapons at demonstrators. Trump announced he would send the National Guard in on Saturday, June 7. They arrived on Sunday morning.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized the federalization of additional National Guardsmen in his own statement.
“The first 2,000? Given no food or water. Only approx. 300 are deployed — the rest are sitting, unused, in federal buildings without orders,” he wrote on X.
Trump federalized the National Guard members using Title 10 of the U.S. Code. On Monday the state of California sued the Trump administration, saying it “unlawfully bypassed” the governor to take control of the National Guard troops.
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