Roughly 400 Marines are being sent to Los Angeles to replace the 700 already there, Task & Purpose confirmed Tuesday, while 150 California National Guardsmen will be sent home. As the new Marines arrive, Marines who have been in Los Angeles for most of June will rotate out. Like those they are replacing, the 400 Marines are based at the Marine Corps’ major training base in Twentynine Palms, California.
The 400 Marines are from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division will deploy to Los Angeles, according to a statement posted to the U.S. Northern Command website, and will replace troops from the regiment’s 2nd Battalion.
A spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command said that the Marines with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, are not adding to the total number of Marines deployed to the area. Instead, they will relieve Marines currently deployed to the Los Angeles area.
Additionally, officials with Task Force 51 said that it will release approximately 150 members of the California National Guard from the federal mission.
The deployments and relief were quietly telegraphed last week in a photo gallery on the military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. In a collection of photos taken and posted on June 26, officials said the newly arrived Marines were there “to replace U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines.” However, neither the 1st Marine Division or Task Force 51 — the organization set up by NORTHCOM to oversee the Title 10 mission to the greater Los Angeles area — responded to questions from Task & Purpose about the deployments until making a formal announcement Tuesday, July 1.
After protests broke out in Los Angeles County against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on June 6, President Donald Trump ordered that troops be federalized to protect federal property and personnel. Approximately 2,100 members of the California National Guard arrived early on June 9. They arrived at federal buildings in the area and, for the most part, have stayed on premises as security, not directly engaging with protesters. A few have gone with Department of Homeland Security agents on immigration raids as security for the armed federal personnel.
Roughly 700 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, were deployed on June 9. At the time, NORTHCOM said in a statement that “[t]he 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.”
However, those Marines did not immediately rush to the city. Instead, they spent several days in neighboring Orange County, doing additional training on the Standing Rules for Use of Force as well as the use of less-than-lethal weapons. They finally arrived on June 13, taking over the guarding federal buildings. In their first hours on duty, they briefly detained an Army veteran who crossed onto the grounds of the Wilshire Federal Building on his way to the neighboring West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.
Another 2,000 National Guard troops, from the 49th Military Police Brigade, were activated under Title 10 authority on June 17. NORTHCOM told Task & Purpose last week that although protests in Los Angeles were the “catalyst” for the use of Title 10, “the president’s order and NORTHCOM’s mission is not constrained by the geography of Southern California.”
The Marines already in the Los Angeles area have been assigned to guard federal buildings in the county, with the most visible presence at the Wilshire Federal Building, miles from where protests have been centered downtown. National Guard soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and the 49th Military Police Brigade have also been guarding the buildings, but some have accompanied ICE agents on immigration raids, and more than 300 took part in a large Drug Enforcement Administration-led raid near the Salton Sea, 136 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles.
Since the large “No Kings” protests around the country on June 14 — with several in Los Angeles County, including one that drew hundreds of thousands — protests have diminished in size but continue. Small groups of demonstrators continue to gather outside the Downtown Los Angeles federal plaza, partly in demand that the military leave the city.
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