After more than a month, 2,000 California National Guard troops are being released from federal duty. The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the soldiers, roughly half of the entire National Guard presence called up to protect federal agents and property following protests, are having their deployment ended early.
The soldiers being released from federal control are from the California National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. It’s not clear what specific benchmark was met to release the soldiers from the command. Roughly 2,000 California National Guard troops with the 49th Military Police Brigade remain under federal authority and deployed to the area. It’s unclear how quickly soldiers with the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will demobilize and leave the Los Angeles area.
“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Tuesday in a statement.
After protests against federal immigration raids broke out on June 6 and federal police fired less-than-lethal rounds at demonstrators. Soon after, President Donald Trump said he was placing California National Guard troops under federal control, citing Title 10 in the U.S. Code. The Pentagon formally ordered 2,000 soldiers from the 79th Infantry BCT to Los Angeles for a deployment with a 60-day cap — they arrived June 9. The Pentagon also quickly ordered 700 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment to Los Angeles to bolster the National Guard presence there, although they would not arrive for several days, stopping to do training on non-lethal action. That same week 2,100 soldiers from the 49th Military Police Brigade were also ordered to join Task Force 51. The decision to deploy federal troops to Los Angeles was met with criticism from city and state officials and local police leadership, who called the move unnecessary in the face of protests.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is challenging the federalization of troops in court, called for the rest of the troops to be sent home.
“For more than a month, the National Guard has been pulled away from their families, communities and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles. While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities,” Newsom said in a statement.
Although the Pentagon cited “lawlessness” in the area, most of the 4,100 National Guardsmen have spent the last five weeks stationed at various federal properties in the region, not directly engaging with any of the protests. Clashes, including the use of tear gas and rubber bullets during the No Kings protests last month at Los Angeles City Hall, involved local police departments, not federal troops.
A portion of the federalized National Guard troops have accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other DHS agents on immigration operations around Southern California. U.S. Northern Command has maintained that the soldiers are not participating in law enforcement activity themselves, but are providing protection for federal personnel doing such actions. National Guard soldiers have accompanied DHS personnel on immigration raids in Carpinteria — where one person was injured and later died — a large presence patrol in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park, and on drug busts 136 miles from Downtown Los Angeles. Northern Command has said that the task force is not “constrained” by Southern California’s geography.
At the start of the month, Northern Command released 150 National Guard troops, including a large number who are part of the California National Guard’s firefighting operations. The military also rotated out the 700 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and replaced them with 400 Marines from 3rd Battalion 7th Marine Regiment.
A trial for California’s legal challenge to the federalization of troops is set to start Aug. 11.
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