As cities across the nation brace for “No Kings” protests on June 14, Donald Trump deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles, with 200 troops arriving Friday to guard the Wilshire Federal Building — the latest provocation in the president’s militarized answer to immigration enforcement and protest policing.
Marines have already carried out the first known detainment in the city. Reuters obtained photographs of armed Marines temporarily detaining a civilian. The U.S. military confirmed the incident, which took place at the Wilshire Federal Building, to the outlet. The New York Times reported that the individual said he was an Army veteran and tried to reach the Veteran’s Affairs office located past caution tape. The man said he was undisturbed by his brief detention.
Earlier this week, the commander overseeing military operations in the city said that military personnel can only temporarily detain people but cannot make arrests.
The move to have Marines involved in local police work tests the boundaries of the Posse Comitatus Act, which broadly prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement.
The pictures have surfaced a day after a federal judge attempted to place a restraining order on Trump’s move to federalize 4,000 California National Guard Troops. (That injunction has since been stayed by an appeals court.)
The judge did not address the role of Marines under Trump’s command, writing that he would await a court date to weigh evidence as to whether these federal forces were engaging in police-like behavior including “interrogating, detaining, or searching civilians.”
Trump has long dreamed of using military force to counter his domestic opposition. On June 6, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeted warehouses, clothing manufacturers, and Home Depot parking lots across Los Angeles, prompting a wave of local protests. Trump seized the opportunity to exert control over the state, deploying 2,000 National Guard troops into the city despite protests from both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass.
The president has since mobilized as many as 4,000 members of the California National Guard along with the 700 Marines to deploy in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was dragged out of a Department of Homeland Security press conference, forced to the ground, and handcuffed by members of the FBI after attempting to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem a question. Padilla later said in a press conference that he was “there peacefully” and was hoping to get answers from the administration about their immigration policies. “I began to ask a question,” the senator recalled. “I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed,” he said, clarifying: “I was not arrested. I was not detained.” Padilla then addressed reporters: “If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question you can only imagine what they’re doing do farmers … and day laborers.”
Millions are expected to protest President Trump’s military parade on his birthday (which is also Flag Day and the 250th anniversary of the Army). The president has planned for a procession of tanks, Howitzers, mobile rocket launchers, and other war machines to roll through the streets of Washington, D.C., as military aircraft, including Apache helicopters, fly overhead.
Protest organizers have called June 14 a “nationwide day of defiance.” The protest website reads: “They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too. far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.”
Trump has threatened demonstrators planning to show up at his military spectacle, declaring, “If any protester wants to come out, they will be met with very big force.”
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