Hundreds of Marines mobilizing to Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Hundreds of U.S. Marines stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, are being mobilized to Los Angeles.

Roughly 700 Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division from their base in Twentynine Palms are being activated to respond to the Los Angeles area after anti-ICE protests grew violent Sunday night, the Department of Defense has confirmed. CNN was the first to report on the activation, which was later confirmed by Nexstar's NewsNation.

The Defense Department said the Marines will "seamlessly integrate" with personnel already on the scene "who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area."

CNN Pentagon correspondent Natasha Bertrand described the move as a "significant escalation of the president's use of the military as a show of force against these protesters."

Bertrand said it's unclear what role the Marines will serve when they arrive in L.A.

"The rules of engagement, we are told, are still being finalized. The Department of Defense lawyers are looking at the kind of rules of engagement these Marines will have as they encounter protesters possibly on the streets of Los Angeles," Bertrand said.

The decision to deploy Marines to L.A. comes as city and state leaders have repeatedly pushed back on the federal government exerting force and assuming administrative control over military operations in the city without consulting them.

Both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have called the deployment of the National Guard into the city an unnecessary escalation and an act of political theater.

Bass held a press conference Sunday night in which she blamed President Donald Trump for needlessly increasing tensions in the city, as demonstrators took to the streets to protest immigration enforcement operations taking place at various locations in Los Angeles.

“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” Bass said during the press conference. “This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”

On Monday, Newsom's office filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking the return of command for the California National Guard to the governor.

Also on Monday, Trump voiced his support for the California governor to be arrested, although on what charges was not immediately clear.

“I think his primary crime is running for governor, because he’s done such a bad job," Trump told reporters Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C.

Commenting on the president’s decision to mobilize the Marines, Newsom wrote on social media: “U.S. Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy. They are heroes. They shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”