U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that active-duty Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton are on “high alert” and may be deployed to Los Angeles, California, if violent protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations continue to escalate.

The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to the city to address what the administration describes as “lawlessness” stemming from anti-ICE riots.

The unrest in Los Angeles began on June 6, 2025, following a series of ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles County, including a notable operation at a Home Depot in Paramount.

Protesters, numbering in the hundreds, clashed with federal agents, with reports of tear gas, flash-bangs, and arrests, including that of a union leader.

Demonstrators, some chanting “ICE out of LA,” have been accused by federal officials of assaulting ICE officers, slashing tires, and defacing federal property.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed that approximately 1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building on June 6, though these accounts remain unverified by independent sources.

President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, stating, “If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

The White House has framed the protests as an “insurrection” and a threat to national security, citing the involvement of “criminal cartels” and “foreign terrorist organizations.”

In a post on X, Secretary Hegseth emphasized a zero-tolerance policy for violence against federal agents, stating, “The violent mob assaults on ICE and Federal Law Enforcement are designed to prevent the removal of Criminal Illegal Aliens from our soil; a dangerous invasion facilitated by criminal cartels (aka Foreign Terrorist Organizations) and a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK.”

He confirmed the immediate mobilization of the National Guard and warned that “if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”