 "Members of the California National Guard stand watch outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on Tuesday, following another day of protests in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles. Hundreds of Marines are due to arrive in Los Angeles on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump ordered their deployment in response to protests against immigration arrests and despite objections by state officials. AFP")
The deployment of US Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to ongoing protests is likely to cost the Defence Department approximately $134 million, according to a CNN report, citing a senior Pentagon official.
“The current estimated cost is $134 million, which is largely just [temporary duty] cost — travel, housing, food, etc.,” CNN quoted Bryn MacDonnell, special assistant to the Secretary of Defence and the official performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defence (Comptroller), as saying.
MacDonnell made the statement during testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defence.
When pressed by Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) on the source of the funding, MacDonnell said the money would be drawn from “other [Operation and Maintenance] accounts.”
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She was joined at the hearing by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Hegseth told lawmakers the deployment is expected to last 60 days and assured the subcommittee that troops would be “housed, fed,” and adequately supplied.
The operation follows President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to mobilise federal forces to manage civil unrest in Los Angeles sparked by immigration enforcement actions.
As the Defence Department confirmed the cost of deploying federal troops to Los Angeles will reach $134 million, Presidentrump on Tuesday defended the move and made clear that the National Guard and Marines will remain in place “until there’s no danger.”
“It’s easy. Look, it’s common sense. … When there’s no danger, they’ll leave,” CNN quoted Trump as saying in the Oval Office, declining to provide a specific timeline for the withdrawal.
National Guard to Stay in LA until…: Trump
On Saturday night, Trump authorised the deployment of 2,000 National Guard members as demonstrations escalated. By Monday, he had doubled the number to 4,000 and also mobilised 700 US Marines, despite public opposition from California’s Democratic leadership.
“You would have had a horrible situation had I not sent them in. Horrible,” CNN quoted Trump as saying. “You’d be reporting on a lot of death and a lot of destruction that’s not going to take place,” he added.
The presidential memorandum signed by Trump stipulates that the National Guard’s deployment will last 60 days, subject to the discretion of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump also signaled that his administration’s immigration enforcement campaign will continue beyond California, stating efforts will expand to other parts of the country in the days ahead.
President Trump’s deployment of military forces to respond to protests in Los Angeles is drawing sharp criticism from legal experts, who describe the move as highly unusual and potentially destabilising.
Rare and alarming step
Trump’s use of the military is an “incredibly rare” step for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, told AFP.
Typically, the National Guard — a fully equipped reserve component of the armed forces — is controlled by state governors and is deployed domestically in response to emergencies such as natural disasters.
The last time a president overrode a governor’s authority to deploy the Guard was in 1965, during the peak of the civil rights movement.
The use of regular troops, such as the US Marines, is even more exceptional on US soil.
Federal law generally prohibits the military from engaging in civilian law enforcement unless an insurrection is declared.
Amid rising tensions and the presence of thousands of Guard members and Marines in Los Angeles, speculation is mounting that Trump may invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him greater leeway to use active-duty military for domestic policing operations.
Trump “is trying to use emergency declarations to justify bringing in first the National Guard and then mobilising Marines,” AFP quoted Frank Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri, as saying in an interview.
Bowman added that the “suspicion” is Trump is deliberately escalating the situation to create the conditions for more drastic federal action.
“That kind of spectacle feeds the notion that there is a genuine emergency and, you know, a genuine uprising against the lawful authorities, and that allows him to begin to use even more force,” he said.
The State of California has already filed a lawsuit to block the deployment of National Guard troops, and Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that the state will also sue to prevent the deployment of active-duty Marines.
With inputs from agencies