About 700 Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests

More than 700 Marines based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California have been mobilized to respond to the protests in Los Angeles, and the troops will join the thousands of National Guard members who were activated by President Donald Trump over the weekend without the consent of California’s governor or LA’s mayor, Report informs via CNN.

The deployment of the full Marine battalion marks a significant escalation in Trump’s use of the military as a show of force against protesters, but it is still unclear what their specific task will be once in LA, sources told CNN. Like the National Guard troops, they are prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity such as making arrests unless Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, which permits the president to use the military to end an insurrection or rebellion of federal power.

The Marines being activated are with 2nd battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine division, according to US Northern Command. The activation is “intended to provide Task Force 51 with adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage of the area in support of the lead federal agency,” NORTHCOM said in statement, referring to US Army north’s contingency command post.

One of the people familiar with the Marine mobilization said they will be augmenting the guard presence on the ground in LA.

Approximately 1,700 National Guard members are now operating in the greater Los Angeles area, two days after Trump’s Saturday memorandum deploying 2,000 service members, according to a statement from NORTHCOM. On Monday evening, the Pentagon announced that Trump ordered the deployment of an additional batch of 2,000 more National Guard members. It is unclear when the rest of the initial group, or the new troops announced Monday, would arrive in Los Angeles.

The Marines are expected to bolster some of the guard members who have been deployed to LA in the last two days, this person said.