Members of the National Guard stand outside the Wilshire Federal building on Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
LOS ANGELES – After a week of protests over federal immigration raids, about 200 Marines have moved into Los Angeles and will protect federal property and personnel, a military commander said Friday.
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51 who is overseeing the 4,700 troops deployed, said that the Marines have finished training on civil disturbance and the first batch moved to a federal building west of downtown Los Angeles where they will start their operations at noon local time.
The development comes a day after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order that had directed President Donald Trump to return control of National Guard troops to California, shortly after a federal judge had ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and both violated the Tenth Amendment and exceeded Trump’s statutory authority.
Some 2,000 National Guard troops have been in the city since last week when immigration raids set off protests. Some have provided protection to immigration agents making arrests. Another 2,000 Guard members were notified of deployment earlier this week.
The 200 Marines will be replacing soldiers protecting the federal building, which will allow more of National Guard members to be assigned to protecting federal agents on their operations, Sherman said.
None of the military troops will be detaining anyone, he added.
“I would like to emphasize that the soldiers will not participate in law enforcement activities. Rather, they’ll be focused on protecting federal law enforcement personnel,” Sherman said.
Roughly 500 National Guard members have been used to provide security on immigration raids after undergoing expanded instruction, legal training and rehearsals with the agents doing the enforcement before they go on those missions.
It’s unclear if the Marines will eventually provide security on raids. A total of 700 Marines have been trained to work in LA.
The movement of Marines into LA comes as a curfew has been in place in downtown and protests have ended after a few hours with arrests this week largely for failure to disperse. On the third night of the 8 p.m. curfew, officers with the Department of Homeland Security deployed flash bangs to disperse a crowd that had gathered near the jail, sending protesters sprinting away.
As with the past two nights, the hourslong demonstrations remained peaceful and upbeat, drawing a few hundred attendees who marched through downtown chanting, dancing and poking fun at the Trump administration’s characterization of the city as a “war zone.”
The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
