By Brad Brooks, Jorge Garcia, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -U.S. Marines were deployed to Los Angeles on Friday, the military said, in a rare domestic use of its forces after days of protests over immigration raids and as nationwide demonstrations were expected on Saturday, in the biggest backlash since President Donald Trump returned to power.
About 200 Marines will protect a federal building in Los Angeles, Army Major General Scott Sherman said on Friday. The administration has authorized a total of 700 Marines to be deployed in the city.
Neither the Marines nor National Guard troops in the city have temporarily detained anyone, he added.
“I would like to emphasize that the soldiers will not participate in law enforcement activities,” he said during a briefing.
It is uncommon for active-duty troops to be used domestically during civil disturbances.
The last time the military was used for direct police action was in 1992, when the California governor at the time asked then President George H.W. Bush to invoke the Insurrection Act to help respond to Los Angeles riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King.
A court decided on Thursday that Trump can keep his deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles for now.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision temporarily paused a lower court ruling that blocked the mobilization, although it does not mean the court will ultimately side with him.
“We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The Trump administration “far overreached its authority,” the California Attorney General’s office said, adding that it remained confident in its case ahead of making arguments to court on Tuesday.
In the city’s downtown, construction workers were out early on Friday adding plywood to storefronts, with many already boarded-up.
Little Tokyo, hardest hit by the protests, remains largely covered in anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement graffiti spray-painted by demonstrators during the previous nights’ marches, though few buildings had damage beyond that.
“This is all terrible for business,” said the proprietor of one restaurant, whose windows were being boarded up and would only speak on condition of anonymity.
“My business is great when things are calm, but neither the protesters nor the police are letting that happen.”
SOLDIERS ON THE STREETS
Cities across the U.S. were bracing for demonstrations on Saturday, when those also opposed to a weekend military parade in Washington are expected to take to the streets.
“They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services,” the group No Kings, which is organizing the day of action, wrote on its website.
Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to deport immigrants, employing forceful tactics consistent with the norm-breaking political style that got him elected twice.
Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, have said the use of military force was unnecessary and an example of Trump’s authoritarianism.
In Los Angeles, troops have stood guard at a federal detention center downtown where many of the protests have taken place in a show of solidarity for immigrants detained inside.
The Guard had accompanied ICE agents on operations to detain immigrants.
City officials in Los Angeles and state officials in California have opposed the ramp-up of federal immigration enforcement since it began last Friday.
“Peace begins with ICE leaving Los Angeles,” Mayor Karen Bass, who has imposed a nighttime curfew over one square mile (2.5 square km) of downtown Los Angeles, said on Thursday.
Protests have been mostly peaceful, punctuated by incidents of violence, and restricted to a few city blocks.
The Los Angeles Police Department said 33 people were arrested downtown overnight for failing to disperse as protests continued in the city for a seventh day, and 13 arrests were made for violating the curfew.
Demonstrations have also taken place in other cities this week, including New York and Chicago, and there have been some disturbances.
Four detainees escaped from a privately operated immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday amid reported unrest inside the facility, a Department of Homeland Security official said on Friday.
“DHS has become aware of 4 detainees at the privately held Delaney Hall Detention Facility escaping,” the official said in a statement.
Video posted to social media by the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, an advocacy group, showed protesters outside the facility attempting to block law enforcement vehicles from entering.
Delaney Hall drew national attention last month when the mayor of Newark and a Democratic congresswoman were arrested while trying to enter.
Americans are divided over Trump’s decision to activate the military.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday showed 48% of respondents agreed with a statement that the president should “deploy the military to bring order to the streets” when protests turned violent, while 41% disagreed.
(Additional reporting by Sebastian Rocandio, Omar Younis, Arafat Barbakh, Rollo Ross, Alan Devall, Joseph Ax and Phil Stewart; Writing by Costas Pitas; Editing by Mary Milliken, Mark Porter, David Gregorio and Rod Nickel)
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