The Department of Defense is releasing 2,000 National Guard troops from their deployment as part of a “federal protection mission” in Los Angeles that was directed by President Donald Trump’s administration in response to major anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots in California.
In a Tuesday statement to Fox News, Sean Parnell, the chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, said, “Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding. As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission.”
According to Fox News, approximately 4,000 National Guard troops were federalized and 700 U.S. Marines were deployed to Los Angeles last month in response to the left-wing riots against ICE operations in the city.
After the Trump administration’s release of 2,000 National Guard troops on Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, issued a statement, saying, “This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat.”
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“My message today to Angelenos is clear — I will never stop fighting for this city,” Bass added. “We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country.”
The president’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles without the approval of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) last month led to a court battle between the state and the Trump administration. While a lower court ruled that Trump’s National Guard deployment was illegal and ordered the president to return command of the troops to the California governor, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling and upheld the president’s control of the National Guard troops.
In a Tuesday statement obtained by ABC 7, Newsom’s office said, “For more than a month, the National Guard has been pulled away from their families, communities and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles.”
“While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities,” the governor’s office added. “We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now.”
