2,000 National Guardsmen being withdrawn from Los Angeles mission, Pentagon confirms

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The military presence in Southern California is being reduced by almost half. The Pentagon confirmed that 2,000 National Guardsmen are being withdrawn from their mission in Los Angeles.

Nearly 4,700 California National Guardsmen and active-duty Marines were deployed to Los Angeles in early June with the mission to protect federal buildings and personnel following protests of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in L.A.

“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding. As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement provided to ABC News.

Many of the Guardsmen deployed to L.A. received specific training to provide perimeter security during ICE operations and were not carrying out law enforcement duties. They were, however, authorized to temporarily detain individuals if needed and then quickly turn them over to law enforcement personnel.

The federal troops’ domestic deployment raised multiple legal questions, including whether the administration would seek to employ emergency powers under the Insurrection Act to empower those forces to conduct law enforcement on U.S. soil, which they are not permitted to do except in rare circumstances. The Marines, however, are primarily assigned to protecting federal buildings.

READ MORE: Military requesting to pull 200 troops back from LA protest duty and return them to wildfire unit

Previously, the top military commander in charge of the troops deployed to Los Angeles asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if 200 of those forces could be returned to wildfire fighting duty.

Some politicians sounded the alarm, saying National Guard troops who would normally be working on state fire prevention and drug enforcement were deployed to L.A.

California has just entered peak wildfire season, and Gov. Gavin Newsom warned that the Guard was understaffed due to the Los Angeles protest deployment.

The top military commander of those troops, U.S. Northern Command head Gen. Gregory Guillot, submitted a request to Hegseth to return 200 of the National Guard troops back to Joint Task Force Rattlesnake, which is the California National Guard’s wildfire unit, the officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.