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The Pentagon is releasing 2,000 National Guard troops from their federal mission to Los Angeles.
“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday night. “As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission.”
The Trump administration had federalized roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles in early June to quell anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots and protests.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass categorized the rescission of about half of the National Guard troops deployed to the city as a “retreat.”
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“This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat,” the Democratic mayor claimed in a statement, adding, “We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country.”
Bass said in a press conference that the National Guard’s primary mission has been to guard two buildings that “frankly didn’t need to be guarded.”
“I am hoping that this experiment with the lives of people ends here,” she said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration for deploying California National Guard troops despite his opposition. He argued that the National Guard troops were likely violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil.
Newsom won an early victory in the case after a federal judge ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trump’s authority. An appeals court tossed that order, and control of the troops remained with the federal government. The federal court is set to hear arguments next month on whether the troops are violating the Posse Comitatus Act.
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The deployment of National Guard troops was for 60 days, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the discretion to shorten or extend it “to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground,” the Trump administration’s lawyers wrote in a June 23 filing in the legal case.
Following the Pentagon’s decision Tuesday, Newsom said in a statement that the National Guard’s deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work “to serve as political pawns for the President.”
He added that the remaining troops “continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities.”
“We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now,” he said.
In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to Los Angeles asked Hegseth for 200 Guardsmen to be returned to wildfire-fighting duty. Newsom had warned the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season.
The end of the deployment comes a week after Bass was blasted on social media for interrupting federal authorities and National Guard troops during an operation at MacArthur Park, a known hotbed for homelessness and crime. The mayor claimed children were playing in the park when the “MILITARY comes through” and demanded to speak to ICE leadership at the scene. No arrests were reported, and online users lamented that Bass cared more for illegal aliens than Los Angeles fire victims.
On Tuesday afternoon, there was no visible military presence outside the federal complex downtown that had been the center of early protests and where National Guard troops first stood guard before the Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings, according to the Associated Press. Hundreds of soldiers have been accompanying agents on immigration operations.
Fox News’ James Levinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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