More than 700 US Marines based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Centre in California have been mobilised to respond to the protests in Los Angeles, according to three people familiar with the matter.
They will join the thousands of National Guard troops that were activated by President Donald Trump over the weekend without the consent of California’s governor or LA’s mayor.
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 task will be once in LA, the sources said.
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Like the National Guard troops, they are prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity like 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.
US Northern Command said Sunday local time that 500 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines were put on prepare to deploy orders, but one of the people familiar said Monday that the entire battalion was prepared to deploy and has been mobilised.
One of the people familiar with the Marine mobilisation said they will be augmenting the Guard presence on the ground in LA.
Over 2000 members of the California National Guard have been activated by the president, but only about 300 have been deployed to the streets of LA so far.
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Those initial 300 people were on a routine National Guard drill weekend when they were mobilised, which is why they were able to arrive so quickly, the person familiar said; it can take up to 72 hours for other Guardsmen to be mobilised.
And while the person familiar stressed that the Marines were being deployed only to augment the forces already there, the image of US Marines mobilising inside the US will stand in contrast to National Guardsmen who more routinely respond to domestic issues.
While some Marines have been assisting in border security at the southern border, one US official said Marines have not been mobilised within the US like they are in California now since the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.
While their tasks have not been specified publicly, they could include assignments like crowd control or establishing perimeter security.
Lawyers within the Defence Department are also still finalising language around the use of force guidelines for the troops being mobilised, but the person familiar said it will likely mirror the military’s standing rules of the use of force.
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