Monday, 25 May 2026
U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, who were placed in an alert status over the weekend, are briefed by battalion leadership while rehearsing crowd control tactics at a base in the greater Los Angeles area.
Marines ready for LA deployment amid nationwide protests
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California will face off with Washington in court on Thursday over President Donald Trump's deployment of U.S. troops in Los Angeles after demonstrators again took to the streets in major cities to protest Trump's immigration crackdown.
Some 700 U.S. Marines will be on the streets of Los Angeles by Thursday or Friday, the military said, to support up to 4,000 National Guard troops in protecting federal property and federal agents, including on immigration raids.
Trump's decision to dispatch troops to Los Angeles over the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom has sparked a national debate about the use of the military on U.S. soil and further polarized the country.
Street protests have broken out in multiple cities besides Los Angeles including New York, Chicago, Washington and San Antonio, Texas.
A federal judge in San Francisco will hear arguments Thursday as part of California's lawsuit against Trump. The state is requesting a temporary restraining order to block the troops' participation in law enforcement activities.
California ultimately wants a court ruling that returns its National Guard to the state's control and declares that Trump's action was illegal.
The L.A. protests broke out last Friday in response to a series of immigration raids. Trump in turn called in the National Guard on Saturday, then summoned the Marines on Monday.
"If I didn't act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now," said Trump at an event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
State and local leaders dispute that, saying Trump has only escalated tensions with an unnecessary deployment of federal troops, while Democrats nationally have condemned his action as authoritarian.
Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to deport immigrants, employing forceful tactics consistent with the norm-breaking political style that got him elected twice.
Los Angeles on Wednesday endured a sixth day of protests that have been largely peaceful but occasionally punctuated by violence, mostly contained to a few blocks.
In downtown L.A., shortly before the second night of a curfew over a one square mile (2.5 square km) area on Wednesday night, police said demonstrators at one location threw commercial-grade fireworks and rocks at officers.