Approximately 700 US Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles to support the California National Guard as it responds to the riots spreading throughout the county and its cities.
The Marines are primarily from Twentynine Palms, and their job is to secure and protect federal property and personnel. They are not involved with law enforcement activities, unless they are being directly attack or unless President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act.
The deployment comes one day after President Trump federalized 2,000 National Guard troops, following the inaction by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass to stop the riots.
Newsom has criticized the move as unlawful and inflammatory, and he has already filed a lawsuit against Trump for federalizing the US National Guard in California.
Today, the California National Guard were stationed in front of the Veterans Administration hospital in Los Angeles, where violent protesters had set dumpsters on fire. This is a job that could be performed by the Marines.
The use of Marines is not without precedent. In the early 1920s, organized crime was rampant, and gangsters frequently targeted mail deliveries in search of cash. Between 1920 and 1921 alone, there were 36 armed mail robberies, resulting in the theft of more than $6 million in goods and currency, equivalent to over $86 million today.
At the time, the US Postal Service had fewer than 500 inspectors to protect nearly 250,000 miles of railway mail routes, an impossible task given the scale of the threat.
Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Postmaster General Will H. Hays appealed for federal assistance. In response, President Warren G. Harding dispatched Marines to safeguard the nation’s mail.
The initial Marine mail guard force deployed in 1921 included more than 50 officers and 2,000 enlisted men, strategically stationed at high-risk locations across the country. Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby—himself a former Marine who served in World War I—issued firm orders: Marines were to shoot to kill if attacked. “When our men go as guards over the mail,” Denby declared, “that mail must be delivered, or there must be a Marine dead at the post of duty.”
The impact was immediate. Armed mail robberies came to a sudden halt, and by the end of the year, attacks on post offices, mail trains, and carriers had virtually disappeared. The first deployment of Marine mail guards concluded in March 1922. For the next couple of years, mail theft remained largely under control.
In 1992, following the acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King case in Los Angeles, Marines from Camp Pendleton were deployed to support the California National Guard in restoring order during widespread rioting, looting, and violence. They secured federal property and assisted in calming the situation that was spiraling out of control.
Such domestic deployments typically operate under strict guidelines of the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits military involvement in civilian law enforcement unless authorized by the president through, for example, the Insurrection Act. Marines often focus on securing federal assets or providing logistical support in these scenarios and do not have direct law enforcement duties.