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The Donald Trump administration will send 700 Marines to Los Angeles amid protests over the assault on alleged illegal immigration, and deploy federal forces to California in the face of vigorous opposition from the governor.
Marines will be dispatched to protect “federal personnel and federal property,” the U.S. Northern Command said Monday afternoon.
The move comes just hours after California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Trump for his previous decision to deploy National Guard troops to thwart the protest that began over the weekend. The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court called the president’s decision “an unprecedented seizing of national authorities.”
The military often supports the United States during natural disasters and other incidents, but it is rarely deployed to support domestic law enforcement agencies, particularly without the support of the governor.
The mobilization of the Marines will strengthen standoffs between the White House and state and local leaders regarding the use of the military, as Trump and his allies promote their drastic plan to strengthen the president and the power of millions of illegal immigrants.
“We made a big decision by sending the National Guard to deal with violent and instigated riots in California, or Los Angeles would have been completely wiped out,” Trump said of the true social platform and defended the deployment of federal forces.
Newsom on Monday denounced the president with a move to “create fear and fear.” “This is a manufactured crisis that will allow him to take over the state militia, and undermine the very foundations of our Republic,” he said in a statement.
About 300 members of the California State Guard arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday after Trump transferred control of the military from the state to federal authorities.
At the end of Monday, the Trump administration allowed another 2,000 security guards to be deployed in Los Angeles, a Pentagon spokesperson said it had totaled 4,000 certified security guards despite opposition from Newsmom and local leaders.
Marines were dispatched to provide “the right number of units to provide “continuous coverage of the area,” the U.S. Northern Command said Monday. National Guard forces took office in downtown L.A. on Sunday, with thousands of people protesting over the weekend, causing protests and clashes to erupt among protesters and law enforcement officials.
The US President last deployed the state National Guard in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson dispatched the troops to protect civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama, without being asked by the governor.
Thousands of more protesters marched on the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the fourth day in a row on Monday, holding signs declaring “the Trump Fascist administration must go now.”
Waymo, a Robotaxi operator owned by Alphabet, said Monday that it had stopped service in downtown Los Angeles after some of its vehicles burned up over the weekend. It also stopped vehicles from driving in certain areas of San Francisco, where protests were held.
Around 155 people, including six children, were arrested in San Francisco on Sunday, while other protests took place in New York.
The showdown in California, a massive democratic nation, reflects Trump’s first term as Newsom robbed the mantle of leading “resistance” to his administration. At one point in the war of words between the two men on Monday, Trump supported the idea that Tom Homan, acting director of immigration customs enforcement, had arrested Newsm.
“If I were Tom, I’d do that. I think it would be great,” Trump said as he returned to the White House from Camp David. “Gavin likes to promote. He did a terrible job. I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a good guy, but he’s grossly incompetent, everyone knows that.”
Newsom called Trump’s remarks advocate his arrest as “an unmistakable step towards authoritarianism.”
The president also argued that “the people causing the problem are professional agitators and they are rebels.”
He later told reporters:
Newsom said the addition of National Guard forces only made the situation worse. “Making the California State Guard federal government is an abuse of the president’s authority under the law and is not something we disregard. We are asking the courts to stop illegal and unprecedented order.”
Additional reports from Miles McCormick of Washington and Rafay Udin of San Francisco
