Around 200 Marines have been tasked with guarding the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles on Friday, June 13.
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman told reporters the Marines would take over from National Guard troops who had been performing guard duties on federal property, freeing up those troops protect law enforcement.
The 17-story building on the western side of the city primarily houses a field office for the FBI, as well as Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Passport Agency.
The Marines would be carrying their “assigned weapons,” Sherman said, as well as crowd control equipment.
“They have watched federal law enforcement arrest personnel as they were protecting,” he said of their activities. “They have not had to detain anyone at this point.”
A convoy of Marines en route to the greater Los Angeles area pass Park Boulevard along Highway 62 in Joshua Tree, Calif., on June 9, 2025.
Earlier this week, around 700 Marines from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms deployed to Los Angeles in response to civil unrest triggered by federal immigration enforcement activities.
They have assisted roughly 4,000 National Guard troops President Donald Trump deployed to the city to prevent protests against illegal immigration arrests from spiraling into violence.
The deployment has caused local Democrat officials to push back. Governors usually request National Guard troops before they are mobilized, but in this case, Gov. Gavin Newsom did no such thing.
Newsom has sued the federal government to force the troops off city streets, and has called Trump’s order unconstitutional. A U.S. District Court judge ruled on Thursday Trump did not have the authority to send in troops, but an appeals court judge temporarily overruled that decision later in the day.
The issue will next be taken up at a hearing on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
It is rare for active U.S. military personnel like the Marines to be used during instances of civil unrest. Marines are barred from making arrests under federal law and the Defense Department limits the ways in which they can support law enforcement.
Trump has defended his order as a necessary safeguard against violence.
“If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now,” he posted to his Truth Social platform on Friday.
That claim has been heavily criticized by Newsom and other local officials.
“This brazen abuse of power by a sitting President inflamed a combustible situation putting our people, our officers and the National Guard at risk,” Newsom said in a post on social media earlier this week.
Sam Morgen covers the city of Palm Springs for The Desert Sun. Reach him at smorgen@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Twentynine Palms Marines deployed to protect Wilshire Federal Building