Tensions are escalating between President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom as protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement continue to grip Los Angeles and spread to New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Austin, Texas, and other cities.
Trump deployed about 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to LA against Newsom's wishes.
A federal appeals court Thursday delayed an order requiring the Trump administration to return control of the National Guard to Newsom, dealing the administration a temporary reprieve to what would have been a major reversal of its policy on the protests.
500 National Guard troops trained to accompany ICE raids, general says
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, the commander of U.S. military forces in Los Angeles, told ABC News that about 500 of the National Guard troops have been trained to accompany ICE on immigration operations.
The general stressed, however, that these troops are not carrying out law enforcement in these operations. That is being done by the ICE agents and the trained troops are carrying out protection for ICE during these operations.
U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division are briefed by battalion leadership while rehearsing crowd control tactics at a base in the greater Los Angeles area, June 10, 2025.
Cpl. Logan Courtright/U.S. Marines via Reuters
The service members have ammunition in their clips for their rifles, but there are no rounds in the chamber, according to Sherman.
There are 4,700 troops, made up of National Guardsmen and Marines, deployed to Los Angeles.
-ABC News' Luis Martinez
Jun 11, 2025, 4:02 PM EDT
Marines in LA will have completed 4 days of crowd control training
All 700 Marines sent to LA must complete four days of crowd control training, Marine Commandant Gen. Eric Smith told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Smith said that the Marines are operating under standard Rules of Force.
"These rules emphasize de-escalation, use of non-lethal force and the inherent right of self-defense for Marines and others," he said.
The 4,000 National Guardsmen must complete two days of crowd control training, he said.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 11, 2025, 3:22 PM EDT
30 LA-area mayors call for raids to end: 'Political theater ... rooted in fear'
Thirty mayors from the LA area joined together at a news conference to call on the raids to end.
LA Mayor Karen Bass again claimed that LA is "part of a national experiment" by the Trump administration "to determine how far the federal government can go in reaching in and taking over power" from state and local leaders.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks at a press conference on June 11, 2025.
Pool via ABC News
Bass also highlighted the estimated $134 million spent to deploy the Marines and National Guard, saying, "all of our cities could use that money."
For many residents of the south LA city of Paramount -- one of the sites of protests -- "this has been one of the most devastating moments in recent memory," Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons said, with some families now too afraid to leave their homes.
Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, "The militarization of immigration enforcement has no place in our neighborhoods and the deployment of Marines on U.S. soil is an alarming escalation that undermines the values of democracy."
A woman waves a US flag while California National Guard personnel stand outside the Federal Building during protests in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, June 10, 2025.
Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images
"We stand against these fear-based tactics that target immigrant communities and erode public trust," he said, calling the administration's actions "political theater that is rooted in fear."
Jun 11, 2025, 3:08 PM EDT
DOJ calls lawsuit challenging federal deployment a 'crass political stunt'
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's lawsuit challenging the Trump administration from using the military to enforce federal immigration laws is a "crass political stunt endangering American lives,” Department of Justice lawyers said.
The lawyers asked a federal judge to deny Newsom’s request for a temporary restraining order that would limit the military to protecting federal buildings, arguing such an order would amount to a "rioters’ veto to enforcement of federal law."
Members of the California National Guard conduct exercises after being deployed to the Los Angeles protests June 11, 2025, in Los Alamitos, Calif.
Jae C. Hong/AP
"The extraordinary relief Plaintiffs request would judicially countermand the Commander in Chief’s military directives -- and would do so in the posture of a temporary restraining order, no less. That would be unprecedented. It would be constitutionally anathema. And it would be dangerous," they argued.
In Newsom's request for an emergency order blocking the troops from assisting in federal law enforcement, he argued Trump failed to meet the legal requirements for a federal deployment of the National Guard. Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services allows a federal deployment in response to a "rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States."
Los Angeles Metro Police officers stand on the road in front of the City Hall after a curfew was put into effect following days of protests in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles on June 10, 2025.
Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images
"To put it bluntly, there is no invasion or rebellion in Los Angeles; there is civil unrest that is no different from episodes that regularly occur in communities throughout the country, and that is capable of being contained by state and local authorities working together," Newsom argued.
In response, lawyers with the Department of Justice argued that California should not "second-guess the President’s judgment that federal reinforcements were necessary" and that a federal court should defer to the president’s discretion on military matters.
