US marines deployed to LA have not yet responded to immigration protests

US marines that deployed to Los Angeles on orders from President Donald Trump have not yet been called to respond to the city’s immigration protests and are there only to protect federal officials and property, a commander said.

The 700 marines and another 2,000 US National Guard troops were sent to LA on Monday, escalating a military presence that local officials and governor Gavin Newsom do not want and that the police chief says makes it harder to handle the protests safely.

Marine Corps Gen Eric Smith told a budget hearing on Capitol Hill that the battalion has not yet been sent to any protests.

The marines were trained for crowd control but have no arrest authority and are there to protect government property and personnel, he said.

It came as Mr Newsom filed an emergency request in federal court on Tuesday to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles.

The governor’s request said it was in response to a change in orders for the Guard.

The Guard members were originally deployed to protect federal buildings. It was not clear if the change in mission had begun and Mr Newsom’s office did not immediately say how the state was notified about the change.

Mr Trump doubled the number of Guard troops being deployed soon after the first wave of 2,000 began arriving on Sunday following days of protests driven by anger over the President’s enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families.

Mr Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorises the president to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.

It is one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a US president.

“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” he said on Tuesday from the Oval Office. “But I can tell you last night was terrible, and the night before that was terrible.”

The demonstrations continued on Monday but were far less raucous, with thousands of people peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds more protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention centre where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.

The protests in Los Angeles, a city of four million people, have largely been centred in several blocks of downtown and a few other spots.

At daybreak on Tuesday, guard troops were stationed outside the detention centre, but there was no sign of US marines.

Obscene slogans were directed at Mr Trump and federal law enforcement remained scrawled across several buildings.

At the Walt Disney Concert Hall, workers were busy washing away graffiti on Tuesday morning.

In nearby Santa Ana, armoured vehicles blocked a road leading to federal immigration and government offices. Workers swept up plastic bottles and broken glass near buildings sprayed with graffiti.

Mr Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Mr Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth.

They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they do not need the help.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement that he was confident in the police department’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a “significant logistical and operational challenge”.

Mr Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on the social platform X.

“This isn’t about public safety,” the governor said. “It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”

The protests began on Friday after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across Los Angeles and continued over the weekend as crowds blocked a major road and set self-driving cars on fire.

Police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.

Demonstrations spread on Monday to other cities nationwide, including San Francisco and Santa Ana, California, as well as Dallas and Austin, Texas.

Authorities in Austin appeared to use chemical irritants to disperse a crowd that gathered near the state Capitol.

Texas governor Greg Abbott posted on social media that more than a dozen protesters were arrested.

The Pentagon said deploying the National Guard and Marines costs 134 million dollars (£98.8 million).

That figure emerged just after US defence secretary Pete Hegseth engaged in a into a testy back-and-forth about the costs during a congressional hearing.

Mr Hegseth said the department has a budget increase and the money to cover the costs, and he defended Mr Trump’s decision to send the troops, saying they are needed to protect federal agents doing their jobs.

Meanwhile, Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation on Tuesday accused the President of creating a “manufactured crisis” with his orders to send in troops.

Nancy Pelosi contrasted Trump’s actions with his handling of the January 6 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol when law enforcement officers were beaten. “We begged the president of the United States to send in the National Guard. He would not do it,” Ms Pelosi said.

California’s attorney general Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters that Mr Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.

He sought a court order declaring Mr Trump’s use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.

The President said the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.

US officials said the marines were needed to protect federal buildings and personnel, including immigration agents. A convoy of buses with blacked-out windows and escorted by sheriff’s vehicles arrived overnight at a Navy facility just south of LA.

Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control.

On Tuesday Mr Trump visited Fort Bragg in North Carolina to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Army and addressed the troops in a speech.

“We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again,” he said.

Mr Trump said that Los Angeles would burn to the ground if he had not sent in military forces.

A Trump administration order restored the name of the special operations forces base back to Fort Bragg.

It was part of an effort to turn back a Biden administration move in 2023 to remove base names that honoured Confederate leaders. The North Carolina base had been renamed Fort Liberty.