President Donald Trump's "unlawful military presence" in Los Angeles, where earlier this month he ordered thousands of California National Guard troops and 700 active-duty U.S. Marines to report as anti-immigration protests raged, is affecting the state's counter-narcotics efforts, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. 

"His unnecessary takeover is actively making Americans less safe," the Democrat governor said in a post on X, after data was released from the guard about the effects of the deployments. 

According to data from CalGuard, nearly a third of the troops who were doing drug enforcement duties were pulled away to report to Los Angeles, reports The San Francisco Chronicle. 

The Counterdrug Task Force consists of 447 National Guard members, but 142 have been sent to Los Angeles.

"This is a huge hit to the invaluable work they do on drug interdiction at ports of entry along the border and statewide," Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Newsom, commented. 

The governor has argued that the deployment was not necessary and diverted troops away from vital drug enforcement and firefighting work. 

"You just pulled National Guard I placed at the border who were stopping fentanyl smuggling," he said on social media earlier this month while responding to a Trump administration official. "Now they’re twiddling their thumbs in LA."

Newsom filed suit to regain control of the troops, but federal court appeals judges have allowed Trump to keep the troops in Los Angeles as the case proceeds. 

The Chronicle reported last week that fewer than 20% of the nearly 5,000 Guard and Marines deployed to Los Angeles were on the ground in the city last week. 

The Counterdrug Task Force works at the Mexican border and statewide. According to CalGuard, the deployment also pulled more than half the soldiers from the state firefighting task force and from the guard's youth and community divisions, which operate high school programs for struggling teens.

Lt. Carl Trujillo, a spokesperson for CalGuard, said the organization is doing its best to backfill the vacancies with other soldiers, but it "does get tricky with some of these specialized folks."

"Not just anybody can step into that counter-drug role," he added. "You have to have security clearance; you have to have special skill sets."

Trujillo added that it also takes extensive experience on a firefighting crew to be assigned to the state firefighting task force. 

Meanwhile, Trump administration lawyers said in a brief Monday that it is not yet known how long the deployment will last. 

Troops are also assisting with immigration raids, including on a suspected marijuana farm in Riverside County, located more than 130 miles away from the Los Angeles protests, the lawyers said. 

• Protests Intensify in LA After Trump Deploys Hundreds of National Guard Troops
• Vance, in LA, Says Troops Need to Stay, Blasts Newsom Over Immigration