President Donald Trump’s administration deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles and the surrounding area on Monday in response to the city’s massive riots against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
In a Monday press release, U.S. Northern Command announced that it had activated the Marine infantry battalion that the Trump administration “placed in an alert status over the weekend.”
“Approximately 700 Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division will seamlessly integrate with the Title 10 forces under Task Force 51 who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area,” U.S. Northern Command stated. “The activation of the Marines is intended to provide Task Force 51 with adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage of the area in support of the lead federal agency.”
According to the press release, Task Force 51 includes 700 active-duty Marines and roughly 2,100 National Guardsmen in Title 10 status. Northern Command noted that members of Task Force 51 have been trained in “de-escalation, crowd control, and standing rules for the use of force.”
“Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers – even if Gavin Newsom will not.”
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Northern Command confirmed in the press release that there were roughly 1,700 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Los Angeles and the surrounding area as of Monday.
On Monday evening, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell tweeted, “At the order of the President, the Department of Defense is mobilizing an additional 2,000 California National Guard to be called into federal service to support ICE & to enable federal law-enforcement officers to safely conduct their duties.”
According to The Associated Press, Trump’s authorization for the Department of Defense to deploy an additional 2,000 National Guardsmen in response to the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles brings the total number of National Guardsmen mobilized by the federal government in response to the riots to over 4,100.
In a Tuesday morning statement on Truth Social, Trump said, “If I didn’t ‘SEND IN THE TROOPS’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now, much like 25,000 houses burned to the ground in L.A. do to an incompetent Governor and Mayor.”
