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California National Guard are positioned at the Federal Building, June 10, 2025, in downtown Los Angeles
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THE Pentagon said on Tuesday it is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles sent to the city to deal with protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 marines have been in the city since early June.
It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the 60-day deployment to end suddenly, nor was it immediately clear how long the rest of the troops would stay in the region.
In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to LA had asked Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth for 200 of them to be returned to wildfire fighting duty amid warnings from California Governor Gavin Newsom that the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season.
The end of the deployment came a week after federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived at MacArthur Park with guns and horses.
“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 in announcing the decision.
On June 8, thousands of protesters were met with tear-gas and rubber bullets as they took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s deployment of the Guard.
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