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Efforts to enforce immigration laws in Los Angeles acted as a catalyst over the weekend, with synchronized ICE operations throughout the city inciting violent confrontations with law enforcement, which consequently led to the deployment of military forces.
The Trump administration’s intensive measures reached a peak on Monday when the president took decisive steps by sending hundreds of U.S. Marines to address riots opposing immigration enforcement, according to information obtained by Fox News.
“Around 700 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division will effectively blend with Title 10 forces as part of Task Force 51, who are charged with safeguarding federal personnel and property in the wider Los Angeles area,” stated the U.S. Northern Command in an announcement.
Assemblyman David Tangipa, R-Calif., called the protests an “orchestrated attack.”
Protesters hold up flags during protests after a series of immigration raids on June 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Sunday, June 8:
On Sunday, rioters gathered downtown, including near the Metropolitan Detention Center, to protest ongoing immigration enforcement and the arrival of National Guard personnel.
Law enforcement agencies, including the LAPD and National Guard troops, employed crowd-control measures such as tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
Newsom arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday evening to oversee the response to the anti-ICE riots and meet with state emergency officials.
“We’re here to keep the peace — not play into Trump’s political games,” Newsom wrote.
On Monday afternoon, Fox News learned that hundreds of Marines were mobilizing in Los Angeles. They will be tasked with protecting federal property and federal personnel, according to a senior defense official, and the deployment is open-ended.
The Marines will not be carrying out a law enforcement role, but it Is unclear what their use of force rules are if protesters throw things or spit at them.
The Marines are from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines at Twentynine Palms, California.
Moments before the deployment, Trump expressed optimism that the situation in Los Angeles was improving.
“I mean, I think we have it very well under control,” he told reporters. “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.”
Newsom expressed his outrage at the possibility of the presence of Marines, writing on X, “U.S. Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy. They are heroes. They shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”
Smoke rises from a burning car on Atlantic Boulevard during a standoff between protesters and law enforcement, following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, California, on June 7, 2025. (REUTERS/Barbara Davidson)
The California governor initially said that the information they have is that Marines are not being deployed, but moving “from one base to another base.”
“From our understanding, this is moving Marines from one base to another base,” Newsom wrote in a statement on X. “At this time, the information we have is that Marines are not being deployed (there is a difference between that and being mobilized),” he continued.
“The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented — mobilizing the best in class branch of the U.S. military against its own citizens,” Newsom said.
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, Greg Wehner, Stepheny Price and Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
