Roughly 700 U.S. Marines to withdraw from Los Angeles

Roughly 700 U.S. Marines will now begin their withdrawal from Los Angeles and return to their normal duties, the Pentagon announced Monday.

Earlier today, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, State Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City), veterans and families of service members called for an end to the deployment of troops in Los Angeles.

"The withdrawal of the 700 active-duty Marines from Los Angeles County is long overdue,” L.A. County First District Supervisor, Hilda L. Solis, said. “There is no place for a militarized presence in our communities—especially when residents are peacefully demonstrating and exercising their constitutional rights. These are armed service members trained for the battlefield, not for deployment among civilians.” 

Supervisor Solis also called for the remaining California National Guard members to be defederalized. 

The Pentagon claimed stability has returned to Los Angeles. “The Secretary has directed the redeployment of the 700 Marines whose presence sent a clear message: lawlessness will no be tolerated," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Monday, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The Marine withdrawal was expected to be completed as soon as Tuesday.

After the morning news conference in Sylmar, Bass and Menjivar posted a video on social media hailing the decision to redeploy those 700 Marines.

"We just had a press conference calling for the removal of all of the troops, and we just got word that the Marines will be able to go back to their families and will be leaving Los Angeles," Bass said. She added, "I'd like to say that they heard from the people of Los Angeles."

Menjivar, who served in the Marine Corps from 2009 to 2016, stationed in Miramar, La Jolla, as a radio operator and communications platoon sergeant, said that the deployment of troops to L.A. was unnecessary. "I'm so glad to hear my brothers and sisters are going back to their base," Menjivar said.

The two elected officials held a news conference at Mission College alongside other veterans and families of service members.

Bass emphasized that Los Angeles needs the National Guard to assist and prepare for fire season, not for immigration enforcement and related protests.

"The administration, we know, has retreated some of the forces, but we need all the troops to return home and to not be here, to not be used as political stunts, to not be used to intimidate Angelenos, and to not be used as pawns," Bass said.

Menjivar echoed the mayor's sentiments, saying, "This is why it was so personal and infuriating to me to see 700 of my brothers and sisters in the corps deployed to my backyard because we did not sign up to intimidate and potentially take military action against Americans on American soil, who are exercising their constitutional right to protest."

She also criticized the Trump administration for spending what she called said was about $134 million in taxpayer dollars on the deployment of troops to Los Angeles.

Vet Voice Foundation CEO Janessa Goldbeck, who served in the Marine Corps as a combat engineer officer, said the deployment of active-duty Marines and National Guard troops in support of domestic immigration enforcement is not a routine operation.

"It is a break with longstanding norms and a decision that should concern every American, regardless of political affiliation," Goldbeck said.

"...The job of the American military is to fight and win wars, not police American neighborhoods," Goldbeck added. "When we blur that line, we don't just risk overreach. We risk something deeper, the erosion of public trust in both our armed forces and in our democratic institutions."

On June 7, President Donald Trump ordered that 2,000 California National Guard troops be brought under federal control and deployed to Los Angeles to protect federal facilities and personnel one day after sometimes destructive protests erupted -- mainly in the downtown area. The protests came in reaction to widespread immigration raids and other enforcement actions.

Another 2,000 troops were later added to that deployment, along with 700 U.S. Marines tasked with guarding federal property.

The number of federalized California National Guard troops deployed to the Los Angeles area was cut to 2,000 last week after a withdrawal of another 2,000.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Bass again criticized the Trump administration's ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration in the city, saying Los Angeles is dependent on "immigrant labor."

"Because we are a city of immigrants, we have entire sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor. We have to get the fire areas rebuilt. We're not going to get our city rebuilt without immigrant labor," Bass told said on ABC News' "The Week."

Bass has repeatedly called for the end of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the city, which began June 6. She and other Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have accused the Trump administration of targeting people based on their skin color -- claims the government denies -- and sowing fear in the local immigrant community.

Bass has also accused the administration of reneging on its pledge to target those with criminal histories for deportation, saying most of those being detained in local raids are otherwise law-abiding residents, notwithstanding their immigration status.

White House officials have repeatedly defended the deployments.

"President Trump is fulfilling the promise he was elected on," Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, told City News Service in an email.

Asked on ABC who should be deported, Bass initially did not answer the question, but said "even people who are here legally, even people who are U.S. citizens, have been detained. Immigrants who have their papers and were showing up for their -- their annual immigration appointment were detained when they showed up doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing."

Pressed if the nearly "one million undocumented workers" in Los Angeles should be allowed to stay, Bass said, "This is what I think. ... What I take it we need is comprehensive immigration reform."

Reminded that Congress failed to pass such a bill in her 12 years in the House of Representatives, Bass cited a proposed bill in 2024 that received strong support from Democrats, and some Republicans, but ultimately failed after Trump, then a presidential candidate, opposed it.

"After I left, there was an immigration reform bill that had bipartisan support. This was during the campaign. The president decided he didn't want to have it happen because he didn't want immigration reform to happen where he didn't take credit for it," she said.

" ... Let me just tell you that the people that make that trek, many of whom walk from Central America and even South America up to our border, risk their lives," the mayor continued. "I don't believe that all of these people are sitting at home dreaming of coming to Los Angeles. They're coming here out of desperation."

Bass said she has a request in to speak with Trump administration officials about the raids and the ongoing National Guard deployment in the city, but has not had any conversations recently.

"I want to work with the administration to solve this problem. We have the World Cup in 11 short months here. We have the Olympics and Paralympics coming in three short years," she said.

"I know that these games are very important to the president, and I look forward to working with him and we have an extreme difference on this issue, but there's many issues for us to work on. And I will continue trying to outreach to the administration and hope that at some point they'll be responsive."

Additional reporting by City News Service.