The Pentagon is releasing 2,000 National Guard troops from their federal mission to Los Angeles.
“Thanks to our troops who rose to the occasion, the unrest in Los Angeles is diminishing,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated in a message to Fox News on Tuesday night. “Consequently, the Secretary has directed the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission.”
The Trump administration had placed approximately 4,000 National Guard members on active duty and dispatched 700 Marines to Los Angeles in early June to address the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demonstrations and protests.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass categorized the rescission of about half of the National Guard troops deployed to the city as a “retreat.”
The National Guard deployment was set for a 60-day period, although Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the authority to adjust the timeframe “to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground,” as stated by the Trump administration’s attorneys in a June 23 legal filing.
Following the Pentagon’s decision Tuesday, Newsom said in a statement that the National Guard’s deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work “to serve as political pawns for the President.”
He added that the remaining troops “continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities.”
“We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now,” he said.
U.S. Marines and National Guards stand in line protecting the entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, California on July 4, 2025. (ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to Los Angeles asked Hegseth for 200 Guardsmen to be returned to wildfire-fighting duty. Newsom had warned the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season.
The end of the deployment comes a week after Bass was blasted on social media for interrupting federal authorities and National Guard troops during an operation at MacArthur Park, a known hotbed for homelessness and crime. The mayor claimed children were playing in the park when the “MILITARY comes through” and demanded to speak to ICE leadership at the scene. No arrests were reported, and online users lamented that Bass cared more for illegal aliens than Los Angeles fire victims.
On Tuesday afternoon, there was no visible military presence outside the federal complex downtown that had been the center of early protests and where National Guard troops first stood guard before the Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings, according to the Associated Press. Hundreds of soldiers have been accompanying agents on immigration operations.
