Los Angeles protests: US reportedly preparing to deploy hundreds of Marines as tensions intensify

A battalion of Marines is preparing to deploy to Los Angeles to protect federal buildings as early as Tuesday morning, Australian time, American media outlets reported.

The use of approximately 500 active-duty soldiers to quell sometimes-violent protests against the Trump Administration’s mass-deportation policies would mark an escalation of an already-tense situation in America’s second-largest city.

The soldiers would be in addition to some 2000 National Guard soldiers who were ordered into Los Angeles over the weekend against the wishes of the California state government, which shares legal responsibility for the part-time military force with the federal government.

Governor Gavin Newsom said the state would file a lawsuit suit today against that decision.

The use of Marines from a base 200km east of central Los Angeles would be a rare example of the army being used in domestic law enforcement. Such a step is allowed under the Insurrection Act, a 218-year-old law written to allow the military to fight rebellions.

“The people who are causing the problems are bad people,” US President Donald Trump said outside the White House on Monday.

“They are insurrectionists.”

A few hours later he toned down his comments. “I wouldn’t call it quite an insurrection,″ he said. “But it could have led to insurrection.”

Nationwide protests

Protests were organised in 30 cities across the US Monday, from Los Angeles to Boston, against the government’s decision to arrest and deport thousands of immigrants each day.

Supporters say Mr Trump is carrying out a promise he made during the election campaign to remove people who arrived in the US illegally. Opponents say many of the deportees have spent most of their lives in the US contributing to society, obey the law and should be allowed to stay.

In Los Angeles on Sunday, hundreds of people, some waiving Mexican flags, blocked traffic on one of the main highways traversing the city’s centre, Route 101.

Others set half-a-dozen self-driving Waymo taxis on fire, and vandalised police cars.

Several hundred protesters have arrested, although most seem to have been released quickly.

Arrest threat or joke?

Political leaders in the city have encouraged protests against the federal government while urging people not to be violent.

Told Mr Newsom had dared the federal government to arrest him, Mr Trump said: “I’d do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” a reference to an immigration enforcement official, Thomas Homan.

Mr Trump also said: “Gavin likes the publicity.”

Mr Newsom, a Democrat, appeared to take the comment from the Republican president as a serious threat.

“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation,” he wrote on X. “This is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”