By Emeka Blast 
On Monday, June 9, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum authorizing the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles
On Monday, June 9, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum authorizing the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to help respond to ongoing protests against recent immigration raids. This reinforcement brings the total number of Guard personnel in the city to over 4,000, supplementing the roughly 2,100 already mobilized earlier in the weekend .
In addition to the Guard, the Pentagon has also ordered some 700 active-duty Marines from Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms to deploy to Los Angeles to protect federal property and personnel, including ICE officers . Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass have condemned the deployments as an unlawful federal overreach, and California’s attorney general has filed suit seeking a court order to block the troops’ use in crowd control on state streets. Federal officials, by contrast, assert the deployments are necessary under Title 10 authority to safeguard immigration enforcement activities and federal facilities amid what they describe as increasingly violent demonstrations .
As of today, these National Guard members remain under federal command, tasked with support roles—such as securing perimeters and defending federal buildings—but not with the authority to make civilian arrests. Local law enforcement continues to handle crowd management and arrests. The lawsuit from California officials is set for a hearing later this week, where a federal judge will weigh the legality of deploying state Guard forces without the governor’s consent.
