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2,000 National Guard members released from duty following Los Angeles area protests

National Guardsmen stand outside of the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 9, 2025. Jim Vondruska/Getty Images/File

National Guardsmen stand outside of the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 9, 2025. Jim Vondruska/Getty Images/File

The Trump administration is cutting the number of National Guard members in the Los Angeles area by 2,000 after their deployment last month in response to immigration protests, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

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

The decision comes after Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard members on June 7, and then an additional 2,000 several days later. The National Guard has now been deployed for over a month, although it is not immediately clear how many have been added or removed over that time.

The California National Guard was called up in response to protests in the Los Angeles area as the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security increased enforcement in Southern California. Protests sprung up in different spots across Los Angeles County, but were mostly focused in areas of downtown Los Angeles where federal law enforcement had a more visible presence.

A US District judge had ruled that Trump unlawfully federalized the several thousand members of California’s National Guard, but the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request to lift the lower court’s ruling as the case played out.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom reacted to Tuesday’s announcement by calling on Trump and the Department of Defense to “send everyone home now.”

“For more than a month, the National Guard has been pulled away from their families, communities and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles. While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities,” he said in a statement.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass celebrated the cut in National Guard ranks, calling it a “retreat.”

“This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong,” she said in a statement. “We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat.”

While the intensity of the protests has declined over the past month, federal law enforcement has continued immigration raids throughout Southern California. Last week, federal immigration agents arrested more than 300 migrants during two chaotic raids at legal marijuana farms, which resulted in the death of one person and injured others.

A federal judge ruled Friday that the Department of Homeland Security has been making stops and arrests in Los Angeles without probable cause, and ordered the department to stop detaining individuals based solely on race, spoken language or occupation. The ruling came after the ACLU of Southern California brought the case against the Trump administration the week prior, alleging the agency had made unconstitutional arrests and prevented detainees’ access to attorneys.

Bass also took steps Friday to direct city employees on how to respond to federal agents trying to arrest migrants, saying they should provide entry only for appropriate arrest warrants and for city departments to prepare future response plans.

CNN’s Michelle Krupa, Elizabeth Wolfe, Norma Galeana and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

Author: Taylor Romine , Rashard Rose

Source: CNN:::

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