The U.S. Defense Department has identified a National Guard police unit that is joining thousands of other soldiers deployed to Los Angeles to protect federal immigration officers and property amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
USNORTHCOM announced on Tuesday that the 49th Military Police Brigade would serve alongside the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and two U.S. Marine units under a central command, totaling around 4,100 soldiers.
The Defense Department initially said these were “additional” soldiers, but later clarified that they were part of the current deployment.
“By direction of the Secretary of Defense and in coordination with U.S. Northern Command, about 2,000 additional California Army National Guard soldiers have been activated in a Title 10 status to support the protection of federal functions, personnel, and property in the great Los Angeles area,” the news release from U.S. Northern Command stated.
A statement was released by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office shortly after USNORTHCOM’s announcement, which read:
“This is clean up from the Pentagon. This isn’t a new deployment — it’s the same group of soldiers who have been diverted from critical wildfire work and work at the border, now twiddling their thumbs for Donald Trump’s political theater. This is the deployment of the second set of 2000 federalized Guard soldiers, under the June 9 order. The description of what they are and aren’t going to be doing is meant to be consistent with their legal position, rather than the immigration enforcement support we’ve seen them doing in Los Angeles.”
As much of the civil unrest related to ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, and outrage over the militarization of the city has subsided, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass lifted the curfew issued for a single-square-mile downtown that was put in place in response to protest-related violence and clashes with police.
Recent statements made by the president singling out Democrat-run cities like L.A., Chicago and New York, calling them “Democrat Power Centers” where “Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” appear to suggest plans to ramp up raids.
In a Sunday post to his social media platform Truth Social, President Trump called on ICE “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
At the G7 Conference in Canada, the president doubled down on the inflammatory rhetoric.
“Yeah, I want them to focus on these cities because the cities are where you really have what’s called sanctuary cities, and that’s where the people are,” he told reporters. “New York and L.A. – look at L.A. Those people weren’t from L.A., they weren’t from California, most of those people, many of those people.”
The Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to the city has come under heavy criticism by state and local leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Bass. However, a federal appeals court on Tuesday appeared inclined to let the president maintain control over California’s National Guard troops.
Last week, a district court ordered Trump to return control of the guard to Gov. Newsom. Tuesday’s hearing in San Francisco focused on whether the district court’s order could take effect while the broader case proceeds through the legal system, potentially even reaching the Supreme Court.
This marked the first time a president has activated a state National Guard without the governor’s permission since 1965.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.