By JAIMIE DING and DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Pentagon said Thursday it is ending the deployment of all but 250 National Guard troops that were originally sent to Los Angeles to deal with protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered 1,350 National Guard members to leave this week. The rest will remain to protect federal personnel and property, according to the statement attributed to Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson.
Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines were deployed to Los Angeles in early June over the objections of state and local officials. Half of the Guard were pulled back roughly two weeks ago, and the Marines were ordered to leave a few days later.
“We greatly appreciate the support of the more than 5,000 Guardsmen and Marines who mobilized to Los Angeles to defend Federal functions against the rampant lawlessness occurring in the city,” Parnell said.
Local leaders have contested the presence of federal troops in the city, blaming them for inflaming tensions in the region and said their presence was unnecessary. Mayor Karen Bass called the departure of more troops “another win for Los Angeles” in a post Wednesday night on X.
The presence of Guard troops in the city had been mostly limited to two locations with federal buildings in Los Angeles, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and detention facility downtown. Some soldiers have been protecting federal agents during immigration raids.
National Guard troops recently accompanied federal authorities with guns and horses at a July 7 operation at MacArthur Park, a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations, that ended abruptly.
A vast majority of the troops remained at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos during their time in Southern California and were not seen deployed in Los Angeles. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have largely been small, scattered impromptu protests around immigration arrests.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that President Donald Trump’s “political theater backfired.”
“The women and men of our military deserve more than to be used as props in the federal government’s propaganda machine,” Newsom said.
Newsom sued the federal government in June over the deployment of the National Guard, arguing that Trump violated the law when he activated the troops without notifying him. Newsom also asked the judge for an emergency stop to troops helping carry out immigration raids.
While a lower court ordered Trump to return control of the Guard to California, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the judge’s order.
Klepper reported from Washington, D.C.
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