The Pentagon explains the deployment of troops in Los Angeles to ensure the safety of immigration agents.

The deployment of troops in Los Angeles to respond to the immigration protests is more than justified, argued a combative Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, during a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday. According to the Pentagon chief, this measure is intended to protect immigration agents and prevent protests from spiraling out of control.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has “the right to carry out operations in any state and in any jurisdiction in this country, especially after 21 million undocumented individuals crossed our border during the previous administration,” Hegseth stated, citing a figure significantly higher than the crossings detected during the four years of Democratic governance under Joe Biden. In December 2023, at the peak of activity, nearly 250,000 arrests occurred. By November 2024, the flow had dropped to 44,000.

“We believe that ICE agents should feel safe carrying out their operations, and we have deployed the National Guard and Marines to protect them while they execute their mission,” said the Defense Secretary during a hearing initially set to review budgets and Pentagon management over the past five months. Instead, the focus of the parliamentary meeting was the deployment of 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines in Los Angeles by order of Trump, despite protests from California Governor Gavin Newsom.

As Trump did over the weekend, Hegseth referred to the unrest in Minneapolis during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 as an example of what can happen when timely intervention does not occur. Hundreds of people were arrested during those protests, where Governor Tim Walz—Democratic candidate for vice president in the U.S. elections last November—ordered what became the largest deployment of the National Guard in the state since World War II.

Legal Ban

The California government has filed a lawsuit against the Republican president’s measure, reminding that the authority to deploy the National Guard belongs to the states. Furthermore, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits U.S. troops from being deployed to perform policing functions against their own citizens. Trump’s instructions order troops to be deployed “as necessary to enhance and support the protection of properties and the functioning of the federal government.”

Throughout Tuesday, the deployed Marines began to arrive on the fifth day of protests against ICE raids targeting alleged undocumented immigrants in one of the cities with the highest concentration of foreign-born residents in the country.

The deployment, as specified by Bryn McDonnell, acting chief financial officer of the Pentagon in the same hearing, will cost $134 million (around €117 million). This amount will primarily be used for the transportation of troops, accommodations, and meals, and will be drawn from the Department of Defense’s operations and maintenance budgets, the official clarified.

The harshest criticisms emerged immediately after the hearing began when Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum and Hegseth clashed over the justification and cost of an operation that the Democratic opposition believes should fall on the Los Angeles police and not the military.

“This is a very unfair position that our Marines have been put in. Their service should be honored, not exploited,” the legislator asserted. Meanwhile, Congressman Pete Aguilar, whose district includes part of Los Angeles, asked Hegseth: “Why are they sending combat troops to cities to interact with civilians?”

“Every American citizen deserves to live in a safe community, and ICE agents need to be able to do their job,” insisted the Pentagon chief, a former host on Fox News. “And if they are attacked, that goes against the law, and President Trump believes in law and order. So he has every authority [to deploy the soldiers]. We are proud to do this,” he stated.

In turn, Aguilar reminded him that that authority exists for three scenarios: an invasion by foreign forces, a rebellion, or the manifest incapacity of law enforcement to handle the situation. “Which of these applies in this case?” he asked Hegseth. “All,” replied the Pentagon chief, who justified the supposed case of “invasion” by recalling that some protesters wave flags from other countries, especially the Mexican flag.