About 700 infantry Marines from Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms have been given the green light to deploy to Los Angeles in support of the Army National Guard, a spokesman from U.S. Northern Command said Monday, June 9.
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The order came from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who on Sunday, June 8, called up the guard after violent protests broke out over immigration enforcement.
About 1,700 members of the California Army National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are in Los Angeles, Paramount and Compton. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines would support the soldiers, who have been placed under federal command, to protect federal personnel and buildings, said John Ingle, a spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command.
By 2:45 p.m. Monday afternoon, the Marines’ status was moved to “activated” for deployment. The number of Marines requested by the Northern Command, which is overseeing this operation, was increased from 500 to 700, Ingle said.
“That means they are no longer preparing to deploy, but they’ve been given the thumbs up to begin the process to move out,” Ingle said. A second spokesperson said later on Monday, the Marines would leave the desert base on Monday night.
The Marines, a 1st Marine Division infantry battalion, will be “kitted up similar to what the National Guard uses,” he added, but didn’t specify the actual weapons and vehicles that would be used.
The unit is trained in de-escalation, crowd control and in standing rules for the use of force, Northern Command said.
Deploying the Marines is leading some to call the order an “overreach of authoritarian power,” especially as the military servicemembers could find themselves facing off with civilians.
“Our Marines are trained for deadly combat, not law enforcement,” Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, said in a statement. “This politicizes our Armed Forces and it clearly will not end well. If the president truly wants law and order, he must de-escalate, order our service members back to their bases, and allow our courageous state and local law enforcement officers to do their jobs.”
The state has sued the Trump administration over the deployment of the National Guard. State officials said the move was unnecessary and Attorney General Rob Bonta said it “trampled” California’s sovereignty.
“The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented — mobilizing the best-in-class branch of the U.S. military against its own citizens,” the governor’s press office said in a tweet Monday about the readying of the Marines.
Ingle said the use of the Marines comes by order of the president and the secretary of defense.
