The Trump administration has deactivated all national guards except the 250 people who were first sent to Los Angeles in response to anti-ice protests last month.
The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Pete Hegses ordered 1,350 National Guard members to leave the area this week. The remaining 250 units will continue to protect federal officials and property.
Around 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines were deployed in Los Angeles in early June in response to objections from state and local officials. Half of the guards were pulled back about two weeks ago, and the Marines were ordered to leave a few days later.
“We are extremely grateful that over 5,000 security guards and Marines have mobilized to Los Angeles to defend the federal government’s function against the ramp-prolonged lawlessness that is occurring in the city,” Parnell said.
Local leaders have challenged the city’s federal forces, denounced them for burning local tensions, saying their presence was unnecessary. Mayor Karen Bass called the departure of more units “another victory for Los Angeles” in his post at X on Wednesday night.
Another Los Angeles victory tonight: another troop of 1,000 people are retreating.
All troops will continue this pressure until lahttps://t.co/spbtto09ts is gone
– Mayor Karen Bass (@mayorofla) July 31, 2025
The presence of security forces in the city was largely limited to two locations with the federal buildings in Los Angeles. Some soldiers protect federal agents during immigrant raids.
The National Guard Force recently came to an abrupt end in a July 7 operation in MacArthur Park, an area with large Mexicans, Central Americans and other immigrant groups, accompanied the gun and horse to federal authorities.
The majority of the troops remained at the Joint Army Training Base in Los Alamitos around the time of Southern California and were not deployed in Los Angeles. City and local demonstrations over the past few weeks have been splagued with improvised protests over immigrant arrests.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement that President Donald Trump’s “political theatre backfired.”
“The women and men in our military are more than used as props for federal government propaganda,” says Newsom.
Newsom sued the federal government over the deployment of the National Guard in June, claiming that Trump violated the law when he revitalized the troops without notifying him. Newsom also called on the judge to an emergency halt on the troops that support the implementation of the migrant raid.
A lower court ordered Trump to return control of the security forces to California, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the judge’s order.
