US deploys Marines to LA as Trump tensions with Newsom intensify

The Trump administration escalated its response to anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles with the mobilization of 700 Marines, deploying active-duty military on the ground and deepening tensions with California officials.

The move came after a day of intensifying clashes between President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom, with California suing the administration for mobilizing National Guard troops in the city. Trump, meanwhile, backed comments suggesting that Newsom should be arrested.

The turmoil follows days of demonstrations in L.A. against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. On Monday, largely peaceful protests continued in pockets of the city with little incident. At the same time, cleanup crews were removing cars that were burned in unrest that turned violent at times over the weekend and led to at least 31 arrests.

The Trump administration has argued the conditions are spiraling and that federal forces are needed to support immigration agents and restore order. A Defense Department official said Monday that the Marines, based at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, were on the move after getting notice over the weekend.

U.S. law generally bars the use of the active-duty U.S. military — the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — from carrying out domestic law enforcement. The deployment of the Marines adds to Trump’s order over the weekend that directed the U.S. Northern Command to assume control of the National Guard and dispatch at least 2,000 soldiers to the area.

In that order, he said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “may employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary” to help.

Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass have accused Trump of making the situation worse. In an X post Monday, the governor called the decision to bring in Marines “un-American.” He also said he was informed the president is sending another 2,000 guard troops to LA.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced that he’s filing a lawsuit over what he described as Trump’s “unnecessary, counterrproductive and, most importantly, unlawful” mobilization of the California National Guard. “We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,” Bonta said at a news conference.

Trump, in a series of posts on Truth Social, described the protests as “migrant riots” and said L.A. had been “invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals.” He ordered federal agencies to take any necessary action to continue immigration enforcement and restore control, including arresting demonstrators wearing face coverings.

The president also backed comments from his border adviser Tom Homan, who threatened to arrest state and local officials who obstruct federal immigration enforcement, including Newsom and Bass.

“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said at the White House. “I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy but he’s grossly incompetent, everybody knows that.”

Newsom, in an NBC interview earlier in the day, had dared Homan to follow through, saying, “Arrest me, let’s go.”

Overnight Sunday, looting broke out in several L.A. neighborhoods, including downtown, after demonstrators shut down a major freeway. Five officers were injured as crowds clashed with law enforcement. At least five Waymo cars were set on fire, according to local news station KTLA. The self-driving car service, owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., announced Monday it had removed its vehicles from downtown LA and was suspending service in the area.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said demonstrations early Sunday were largely peaceful but that conditions deteriorated as new crowds arrived.

“This violence that I’ve seen is disgusting,” McDonnell said at a news conference on Sunday night. “What we saw the first night was bad. What we’ve seen subsequent to that is getting increasingly worse and more violent.”

LAPD reported three demonstrations in the civic center Monday afternoon and issued traffic advisories to avoid the area, according to posts on X. Helicopter footage on local television stations showed multiple groups of protesters clustered in an area near federal buildings and U.S. Highway 101, the major artery that was swarmed by protesters Sunday. As of midafternoon, there were no reports of vandalism or arrests, said LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes.

One rally in Grand Park was called by the Service Employees International Union, whose leader David Huerta, was charged Monday with a federal felony of interfering with law enforcement.

Between 60 and 80 people joined a protest against Trump’s travel ban Monday morning at a parking structure at Los Angeles International Airport organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group. Enjy El-Kadi, a CAIR spokesperson, said the protest didn’t interfere with any travel or traffic out of the airport.

In a sign of how the protests and immigration raids had gripped the city, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho ordered the police to monitor the perimeters of about 100 campuses, citing fears that federal immigration agents may interfere with graduation ceremonies Monday and Tuesday. Carvalho said he’d received “threats from high-level” entities.

“Come after me. Don’t go after my kids,” he said.

Protests also turned disruptive in San Francisco, where 148 people were arrested across the city Sunday evening. About 60 of those were tied to demonstrations that became violent near a downtown ICE office, the San Francisco Police Department said. Local businesses had windows broken and vehicles from the city’s municipal transit system were vandalized, Mayor Daniel Lurie said.

Officials said they are prepared to prosecute people who engage in destructive behavior, but also defended sanctuary city policies that prevent local law enforcement from coordinating with immigration authorities in most cases. “We stand united with our immigrant community right now,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a news briefing Monday.

In Los Angeles, the protests are limited to a few small parts of the city, which is a sprawling metropolis stretching over several hundred square miles that’s connected by a web of freeways. There was no sign of unrest in areas such as Century City, Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica that are miles away from downtown, with businesses and residents largely unaffected.

The United Nations on Monday warned against a further “militarization” of the situation in L.A.

“We certainly hope that all parties on the ground will de-escalate the situation,” deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said at a news briefing. “We do not want to see any further militarization of this situation and we encourage the parties at the local, state and federal levels to work to do that.”

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(With assistance from Laura Curtis, Tyler Kendall, Eliyahu Kamisher, Magdalena Del Valle, Carrington York, Tony Capaccio and Isabela Fleischmann.)