Politics
JUST IN: Marines Officially Mobilized In Response To LA Riots
New reports have confirmed that around 500 Marines based out of the Air Ground Combat Center in California have officially been mobilized to respond to the anti-ICE riots unfolding in the city of Los Angeles since Friday.
The information, first reported by CNN, comes from three individuals close to the situation. The Marines will join with National Guard troops that were activated by President Donald Trump over the weekend to assist local law enforcement officers with the chaos and violence of demonstrators.
Folks are curious as to what role the Marines are going to play in their work to bring law and order to the streets of L.A. Unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act, Marines and National Guard soldiers will not be authorized to make arrests.
One source claims their task will be to augment the Guard’s presence on the ground. A total of 2,000 National Guard troops were activated by President Trump, but only 300 have been deployed on the streets thus far. The Marines will serve as relief for some members of the Guard who have been deployed for the last two days, according to CNN.
Sunday, a statement from the U.S. Northern Command said the Marines are “in a prepared to deploy status should they be necessary to augment and support the [Defense Department’s] protection of federal property and personnel efforts.”
“The notice came a day after Trump announced he had authorized the deployment of approximately 2,000 California Army National Guard troops, 300 of whom were deployed Sunday at three locations in the Los Angeles area: Los Angeles, Paramount and Compton,” The Hill reported.
Federal government mobilization of the National Guard without the consent of the governor is a very rare occurrence. In fact, it hasn’t happened since 1965 under former President Lyndon Johnson. During that incident, troops were sent to Selma, Alabama, to provide protection for civil rights protesters.
National Guard soldiers have primarily been tasked with the defense of federal buildings. This includes the downtown L.A. detention center, where significant unrest has occurred.
President Trump has not totally ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act, a statement made while speaking with reporters before climbing aboard Air Force One on Sunday. However, he suggested the protests against immigration deportation operations have not, as of this writing, risen to the level of an insurrection.
Not long after finishing his conversation with the press, the president took to Truth Social to issue a statement, claiming that “violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations.”
