US Marines will join National Guard troops on the streets of Los Angeles within two days, officials say, and will be authorised to detain anyone who interferes with immigration officers on raids or protesters who confront federal agents.
US President Donald Trump ordered the deployments over the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom, sparking a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and animating protests that have spread from Los Angeles to other major cities, including New York, Atlanta and Chicago.
Los Angeles on Wednesday endured a sixth day of protests that have been largely peaceful but occasionally punctuated by violence, mostly contained to a few blocks of the city’s downtown area.
The protests broke out last Friday in response to a series of immigration raids.
Trump in turn called in the National Guard on Saturday, then summoned the Marines on Monday.
“If I didn’t act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now,” said Trump at an event at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
State and local leaders dispute that, saying Trump has only escalated tensions with an unnecessary and illegal deployment of federal troops, while Democrats nationally have condemned his action as authoritarian.
Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to deport immigrants, employing forceful tactics consistent with the norm-breaking political style that got him elected twice.
“President Trump promised to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history and left-wing riots will not deter him in that effort,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The US military said on Wednesday that a battalion of 700 Marines had concluded training specific to the LA mission, including de-escalation and crowd control.
They would join National Guard under the authority of a federal law known as Title 10 within 48 hours, not to conduct civilian policing but to protect federal officers and property, the military said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “If any rioters attack ICE law enforcement officers, military personnel have the authority to temporarily detain them until law enforcement makes the arrest.”
US Army Major General Scott Sherman, who commands the task force of Marines and Guardsmen, told reporters the Marines would not carry live ammunition in their rifles, but they would carry live rounds.
Newsom and the state of California have sued Trump and the Defense Department to stop the deployment, maintaining that none of the Title 10 conditions were met to justify military deployment, such as a when the US is under threat from a foreign invasion or rebellion.
In downtown LA, shortly before the second night of a curfew over a 2.5 square kilometre area, relative calm was broken.
Police said demonstrators at one location threw commercial grade fireworks and rocks at officers.
Another group of nearly 1000 demonstrators were peacefully marching through downtown when police suddenly opened fired with less lethal munitions in front of City Hall.
Other protests have also taken place in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles as well as major cities such as New York, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston and Washington and San Antonio, Texas.
The protests are set to expand on Saturday, when several activist groups have planned more than 1800 anti-Trump demonstrations across the country.
That day, tanks and other armoured vehicles will rumble down the streets of Washington, DC, in a military parade marking the US Army’s 250th anniversary and coinciding with Trump’s 79th birthday.
