Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines have been in the city since early June.
LOS ANGELES — The Pentagon announced Tuesday it will be concluding the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, representing almost half of the forces sent to the city to handle the protests concerning the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
Approximately 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines have been stationed in the city since early June. It remains unclear what led to the abrupt end of the 60-day deployment, and there has been no immediate clarification on the duration of the remaining troops’ presence in the area.
In late June, the senior military leader overseeing the forces in Los Angeles had appealed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reassign 200 troops to wildfire fighting activities, following Governor Newsom’s warnings about the Guard’s understaffing as California approached its peak wildfire season.
The end of the deployment comes a week after federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived at MacArthur Park with guns and horses in an operation that ended abruptly. Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t explain the purpose of the operation or whether anyone had been arrested, local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear.
“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement in announcing the decision.
On June 8, thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to Trump’s deployment of the Guard, blocking off a major freeway as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire.
A day later, police officers used flash bangs and shot projectiles as they pushed protesters through Little Tokyo, where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way.
Mayor Karen Bass set a curfew in place for about a week that she said had successfully protected businesses and helped restore order. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have been largely small impromptu protests around arrests.
The Marines are primarily assigned to protect federal buildings while hundreds of the National Guard troops have been accompanying agents on immigration operations.
President Donald Trump ordered the deployment against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued to stop it.
Newsom sued to block Trump’s command of the California National Guard, arguing that Trump violated the law when he deployed the troops despite his opposition. He also argued that the National Guard troops were likely violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil.
Newsom won an early victory in the case after a federal judge ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trump’s authority. But an appeals court tossed that order, and control of the troops remained with the federal government. The federal court is set to hear arguments next month on whether the troops are violating the Posse Comitatus Act.
The deployment of National Guard troops was for 60 days, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the discretion to shorten or extend it “to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground,” the Trump administration’s lawyers wrote in a June 23 filing in the legal case.
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.
Klepper reported from Washington and Taxin from Santa Ana, California. Sophie Austin in Sacramento, Julie Watson in San Diego and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
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