US President Donald Trump has ordered active-duty Marines into Los Angeles, vowing those protesting immigration arrests would be “hit harder” than ever.
The extraordinary mobilisation of 700 fulltime professional military personnel, who join hundreds of National Guard troops already there, looked likely to further stoke tensions in a city with a huge Latino population.
Trump had already mobilised 2000 National Guard members to the country’s second most populous city on Sunday, with some 300 taking up positions protecting federal buildings and officers on Monday.
On Tuesday - the fourth day of protests against immigration raids in the city that have seen some scuffles with law enforcement - the Trump administration announced the mobilisation of the 700 Marines as well as an “additional” 2000 National Guard.
Deploying active duty military personnel like US Marines into a community of civilians within the United States is a highly unusual measure.
The US military separately confirmed the deployment of “approximately 700 Marines” from an infantry battalion following the unrest.
They would “seamlessly integrate” with National Guard forces that Trump deployed to Los Angeles on Saturday without the consent of California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom.
The deployment was meant to ensure there were “adequate numbers of forces,” it added.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell then announced the mobilization of “an additional 2000 California National Guard to be called into federal service to support Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] & to enable federal law-enforcement officers to safely conduct their duties.”
It was not immediately clear if the “additional” 2000 guardsmen were on top of the 2000 that had already been mobilised, or only the 300 that were already in the streets of Los Angeles.
Newsom slammed the move as “deranged”.
“US Marines have served honourably across multiple wars in defence of democracy,” Newsom posted on X.
“They shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfil the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president. This is un-American.”
The deployment came after demonstrators took over streets in downtown LA on Monday, torching cars and looting stores in ugly scenes that saw law enforcement responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.
“The people causing the problems are professional agitators and insurrectionists,” Trump told reporters in Washington.
On social media, he said he had deployed National Guard troops “to deal with the violent, instigated riots” and “if we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated”.
He said protesters spat at troops and if they continued to do so, “I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!”
One small business owner whose property was graffitied supported the strongarm tactics.
“I think it’s needed to stop the vandalism,” she told AFP, declining to give her name.
“Everybody has the right to protest, but do it the right way. Don’t vandalise or hurt your own town because you’re hurting people that are trying to make a living.”
Others were horrified.
“They’re meant to be protecting us, but instead, they’re like, being sent to attack us,” Kelly Diemer, 47, told AFP. “This is not a democracy anymore.”
A fourth day of protest was unfolding in Los Angeles after dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members.
“Pigs go home!” demonstrators shouted at National Guardsmen outside a federal detention centre. Others banged on the sides of unmarked vehicles as they passed through police containment lines.
A swelling crowd was converging on the centre, where Los Angeles Police Department officers were forming containment lines seemingly aimed at separating demonstrators from federal agents.
Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan said Ice was targeting members of cartels in Mexico and Colombia.
Many locals painted a different picture.
They are “people who are here earnestly trying to improve their lives [and] deserve a chance and don’t deserve to be treated as criminals”, Deborah McCurdy, 64, told AFP at a rally.
Overnight, vandals had set fires and smashed windows, adding to the scenes of damage left after five Waymo self-driving cars were torched. Obscene graffiti was daubed over many surfaces.
Despite isolated and eye-catching acts of violence, officials and local law enforcement stressed that the majority of protesters had been peaceful.
Schools across Los Angeles were operating normally on Tuesday, while the rhythms of life in the sprawling city appeared largely unchanged.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told CNN that in contrast to Trump’s rhetoric, “this is isolated to a few streets. This is not citywide civil unrest”.
At least 56 people were arrested over two days and five officers suffered minor injuries, Los Angeles Police Department officials said, while about 60 people were arrested in protests in San Francisco.
The National Guard is frequently used amid natural disasters, and occasionally during civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities.
Trump’s deployment of the force – the first over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement – was criticised by Democrats, including Kamala Harris.
The former US vice-president and Trump’s opponent in the 2024 election called it “a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos”.
The United Nations warned against “further militarisation” of the situation, in remarks likely to anger the White House.
- Agence France-Presse