Trump administration ends deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the removal of half of the 4,000 National Guard troops who had been sent to Los Angeles to protect federal property and personnel during a spate of protests over immigration raids last month, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the decision was due to the success of the mission.

"Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," Parnell said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump deployed the troops to Los Angeles in June, against the wishes of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, to quell protests triggered by immigration raids on workplaces by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

He also sent about 700 marines.

Despite legal challenges, a U.S. appeals court let Trump retain control of California's National Guard.

Controversial deployment

But his decision to send troops into Los Angeles prompted a national debate about the use of the military on U.S. soil and inflamed political tension in the country's second most-populous city. The Pentagon has defended the deployment, saying safeguarding ICE agents ensures they can do their jobs.

Even after the withdrawal of those military personnel from Los Angeles, 2,000 National Guard troops will remain in the city along with the roughly 700 marines.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has complained that military force was unnecessary and damaging to the local economy, said popular opposition contributed to the withdrawal.

Protesters regularly appear at immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, demonstrating their opposition to the government's display of force.

"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," Bass said.

She referred to a lawsuit the city joined that led to an order from a federal judge barring immigration officers from detaining people based solely on their race or for speaking Spanish.

The troops in Los Angeles are authorized to detain people who pose a threat to federal personnel or property, but only until police can arrest them. Military officials are not allowed to carry out arrests themselves.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's office released a statement, calling on Trump and the Pentagon to release the remaining National Guard members. Newsom has frequently railed against the deployment, in part because California National Guard troops are part of specialized crews often mobilized for the state's frequent wildfires. 

"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," said Newsom.

Trump has vowed to deport millions of people in the country illegally and has executed raids at work sites including farms that were largely exempted from enforcement during his first term. The administration has faced dozens of lawsuits across the country challenging its tactics.

The raids led to people setting vehicles afire, vandalizing buildings and looting businesses, though few serious injuries resulted. 

LISTEN l Adam Goodman, author of The Deportation Machine, on the evolution of ICE: 

Front Burner27:41What exactly is ICE?

For months now, agents working for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have been carrying out raids, arresting people on the street, at work and at immigration courthouses. Often they are wearing plain clothes and masks. As U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown intensifies, so have the instances of arrests and detentions by ICE, sometimes without warrants or due process. Despite mass protests and pushback from opposition politicians and immigrants rights groups, the Trump administration has vowed the arrests will continue as they aim for one million deportations a year. But how, exactly, does ICE operate? How did the agency come to be and how does it compare to immigration enforcement in America’s past? To help us dive deep into ICE’s history and put it all into context, we’re joined by Adam Goodman, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and the author of The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts]

One person died during a chaotic raid and resulting protests last week at two sites of a cannabis farm in southern California. In the operation, 319 people in the U.S. illegally were detained and federal officers encountered 14 migrant minors, Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms — one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 145 km northwest of Los Angeles, and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 80 kilometres from L.A.

Trump has increasingly turned to the military in his immigration crackdown. In addition to the California deployment, thousands of active-duty troops have been deployed to the border with Mexico and the Pentagon has created military zones in the border area.

The zones are intended to allow the Trump administration to use troops to detain migrants without invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act, which empowers a president to deploy the U.S. military to suppress events such as civil disorder.