Pentagon Withdraws 2K California Guard Troops From LA

The Pentagon on Tuesday announced it will begin withdrawing 2,000 California National Guard troops from their mission in Los Angeles to protect federal law enforcement involved in President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Nearly 4,700 California National Guardsmen and active-duty Marines were deployed to Los Angeles in early June to protect federal buildings and personnel following riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city.

"Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, according to KABC-TV in Los Angeles. "As such, the Secretary [Pete Hegseth] has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen from the federal protection mission."

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass celebrated the move in a statement: 

“This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat."

Many of the Guardsmen deployed to Los Angeles received specific training to provide perimeter security during ICE operations and were not conducting law enforcement duties, KABC reported. They were authorized to temporarily detain individuals if needed and then quickly turn them over to law enforcement personnel.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, heavily criticized the troop deployments, even in the wake of the riots. A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court ruling that Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from Newsom.

California has entered peak wildfire season, and Newsom warned that the Guard was understaffed because of the Los Angeles deployment, KABC reported. Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, asked Hegseth to return 200 of the Guard troops back to Joint Task Force Rattlesnake, which is the California National Guard's wildfire unit, according to KABC.