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The Trump administration is sending about 700 U.S. Marines to bring Los Angeles back to order after four days of rioting by anti-deportation protesters.
President Donald Trump had already ordered 2,000 National Guard troops into the fray, but Defense Dept. Sec. Pete Hegseth had warned that they would send Marines if local officials didn't restore order.
'I think it would have been a very bad situation. It was heading in the wrong direction. It's now heading in the right direction.'
A U.S. official confirmed Monday to ABC News that the Marines were being activated out of their base in Twentynine Palms, about 145 miles away, and sent to the rioting.
CNN reported that the Marines cannot legally conduct "law enforcement activity like making arrests" until the president has invoked the Insurrection Act, which many people are calling him to do.
Hegseth had said Saturday that Marines at Camp Pendleton near San Diego had been alerted.
"The violent mob assaults on ICE and Federal Law Enforcement are designed to prevent the removal of Criminal Illegal Aliens from our soil; a dangerous invasion facilitated by criminal cartels (aka Foreign Terrorist Organizations) and a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK," he wrote on social media.
He added, "And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert."
Rep. Mike Levin (D) of California had issued a letter opposing the order even before it was announced.
"I found your threat to deploy Marines to Los Angeles for the purpose of law enforcement to be extremely disturbing. Our Marines are trained to be lethal; they are not trained for law enforcement. Your decision to mobilize them in an act of political theater runs counter to their training. Doing so would also undermine the apolitical nature of our Armed Forces, dealing a serious blow to the very fabric of our great nation," he wrote to Hegseth.
Photo by Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
"They’re trained to defend our country, not police our communities. We shouldn’t be deploying warfighters to American cities, full stop. Our generals know it and Hegseth should too," he added.
Just before news of the deployment broke, the president had responded to questions from reporters about the possibility.
"We’ll see what happens," Trump said.
"I mean, I think we have it very well under control," he added. "I think it would have been a very bad situation. It was heading in the wrong direction. It's now heading in the right direction."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, have called for protesters to avoid violence, but they have also accused Trump of provoking violence by ordering the deportations and then sending National Guard troops.
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