Marines begin operations in Los Angeles ahead of more anti-ICE protests
Law enforcement officers in riot gear patrol a street near Los Angeles City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
LOS ANGELES – With a court decision pending on the fate of National Guard troops deployed in the city, roughly 200 US Marines will move into downtown Los Angeles Friday to protect federal buildings amid continuing protests over ongoing immigration raids in the Southland.
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51 — the contingent of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines ordered to deploy to the city by President Donald Trump — said 200 Marines will take their positions starting at noon Friday protecting the federal building downtown.
The move will free up National Guard troops — who have been primarily protecting federal property over the past week of unrest — to serving a more protective role for federal agents conduction enforcement operations in the field.
Members of the California National Guard conduct exercises after being deployed to the Los Angeles protests Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Alamitos, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
“I would like to emphasize that the soldiers will not participate in law enforcement activities,” Sherman told reporters during a morning briefing.
“Rather, they’ll be focused on protecting federal law enforcement personnel.”
Sherman said some National Guard troops have already been doing protective work for federal agents conducting immigration enforcement activities, but they have not engaged in any police-type work or made any arrests or detentions.
Police block a street during a protest on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
The arrival of the Marines comes one day after a federal judge in Northern California ordered Trump to return control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump federalized 2,000 National Guard troops last weekend as nightly protests were held in downtown Los Angeles in response to mraids being carried out by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump later added another 2,000 troops to the order.
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Newsom and other local leaders vehemently objected to the troop deployment, arguing it was unnecessary and would heighten tensions and potentially lead to more violent protests.
Artesia Councilmember and former Mayor Melissa Ramoso (speaking at the podium) flanked by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Southern California elected leaders. CONTRIBUTED
In Thursday’s ruling, US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco wrote that Trump’s actions federalizing National Guard troops — who are normally under the control of the governor — did not follow congressionally mandated procedure.
“His actions were illegal — both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the judge wrote. “He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.”
Hours later, Breyer’s ruling was stayed by a three-judge appellate panel of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in response to a Trump administration notice of appeal, temporarily keeping the National Guard troops under federal control pending another hearing on Tuesday.
Earlier Thursday, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held an eventful news conference in Los Angeles to discuss ongoing ICE operations in the Southland. She declared, “We are not going away,” moments before Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) was forcibly removed from the news conference, forced onto a hallway floor and placed in handcuffs.
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The rough treatment of Padilla was widely condemned, including by Newsom, who called it “outrageous, dictatorial and shameful,” and by Mayor Karen Bass, who labeled it “absolutely abhorrent and outrageous.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is pushed out of the room as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference regarding the recent protests in Los Angeles, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (David Crane/The Orange County Register via AP)
Thursday’s dramatic events came as tensions sparked by immigration enforcement and the resulting protests in the LA area remained heightened — with a dusk-to-dawn downtown curfew still in effect, leading to a reduction in confrontations with police — though arrests continued to mount.
The curfew affects a roughly one-square-mile area of downtown from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. nightly. The curfew applies to an area between the Golden State (5) and Harbor (110) freeways, and from the Santa Monica (10) Freeway to where the Arroyo Seco (110) Parkway and Golden State Freeway merge. That area includes Skid Row, Chinatown, and the Arts and Fashion districts.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, 13 people were arrested Thursday night into Friday morning for curfew violations. Another 33 people were arrested overnight for failure to disperse, while one was arrested for allegedly resisting a police officer and one for aiming a laser pointer at a police helicopter. One person detained for a curfew violation was arrested for an outstanding robbery warrant, police said.
Los Angeles and other cities across the Southland and the country are expected to see large-scale “No Kings” protests on Saturday held in conjunction with a U.S. military parade scheduled in Washington, D.C. The parade ostensibly will celebrate the US Army’s 250th anniversary, but it also falls on Trump’s 79th birthday.
Law enforcement agencies across the region are likely to be on heightened alert due to the planned protests, including a large-scale gathering expected outside Los Angeles City Hall. National Guard troops and Marines will also likely be in place, continuing their mission of protecting federal facilities, thanks to the federal appeals court ruling Thursday night. (CNS)
