LA riots live updates: US Marines prepare to depart for LA as crisis grows

Multiple sources report Armed National Guard troops are accompanying immigration agents as they carry out mass deportations on the streets of Los Angeles, as unrest escalates.

Armed National Guard troops are accompanying immigration agents as they carry out mass deportation raids on the streets of Los Angeles, multiple sources told The New York Post.

The troops, who were mobilised by President Trump, are providing “operational security” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after they faced attacks and threats from anti-ICE rioters, sources said.

It’s “in case s**t hits the fan,” said a federal law enforcement source.

A second source added: “It’s needed for extra safety and security doing operations.”

ICE agents are happy that the National Guard soldiers will have their backs, but some are concerned that their presence could make the federal immigration agents an even bigger target, the first source said.

“They’re showing up with Humvees and uniforms,” the source said.

ICE agents often try to fly below the radar before they swoop in on a target, travelling in unmarked SUVs and operating in street clothes.

Los Angeles Police Department officers push away a camera crew during a protest in response to a series of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Picture: Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP

The soldiers are not making any arrests on behalf of ICE.

The Trump administration deployed 2,000 National Guard soldiers to LA over the weekend as rioters set cars ablaze and hurled rocks at law enforcement officers.

Later, the Department of Defense mobilised 700 active-duty Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, to help maintain order in LA.

Roughly 150 Border Patrol agents have also been pulled from the southern border in both California and Arizona to help control the riots, according to sources.

Mr Trump earlier praised the National Guard while criticising LA Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for being “unable to handle the tasks” of quelling the violence.

Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth earlier warned the National Guard was being deployed “IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles” in a post on X.

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Originally published as LA riots live updates: US Marines prepare to depart for LA as crisis grows