Trump To Pull Half Of 4,000 National Guard Troops Deployed To Los Angeles

Topline

Half of the roughly 4,000 National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles last month amid immigration raid protests will be withdrawn, the Trump administration announced Tuesday, calling off the soldiers weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom unsuccessfully tried to block their deployment.

The National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles on June 8. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty … More Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said 2,000 National Guard troops will be pulled from the city after being tasked with protecting federal buildings and assisting immigration arrests.

The withdrawal leaves roughly 2,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines in the city, and though it is not clear how much longer remaining troops would stay in Los Angeles, the June 8 National Guard deployment was initially scheduled to last for 60 days.

The immigration raid protests that began June 6 in Los Angeles largely dwindled by the middle of the month.

Parnell said in his statement that “lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” crediting the National Guard troops.

National Guardsmen joined local police lines and made brief detainments during the protests before handing detainees over to local law enforcement for arrests.

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Big Number

37. That is how many days approximately 4,000 National Guardsmen were deployed in Los Angeles.

Surprising Fact

Some National Guardsmen and Marines reportedly expressed doubt over their deployment to Los Angeles, which was blasted by Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as illegal and inflammatory. An advocacy organization representing veterans told The Guardian morale among the troops was “not great” during the deployment, citing comments from unnamed Guardsmen. Janessa Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran who leads the Vet Voice Foundation, also told The Guardian she spoke with deployed Marines and that “the feeling was that the Marines are being used as political pawns,” noting the “overall perception was that the situation was nowhere at the level where marines were necessary.”

Key Background

President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles was deemed illegal by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who ruled on an emergency motion by Newsom to block the troops. However, Trump quickly appealed the ruling and won in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found Breyer erred when he ordered Trump to return control of the National Guard to Newsom. The appellate court said conditions in Los Angeles during the protests were sufficient enough for Trump to deploy the Guardsmen without Newsom’s approval, which marked the first time since 1965 a president had made a deployment without a governor’s permission. Demonstrations in Los Angeles were largely peaceful, though there were incidents of thrown items, arson and looting. While the bulk of protests that sparked in June have subsided, some demonstrations are continuing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids persist in Los Angeles, which has one of the largest immigrant populations in the U.S.