US Pentagon deploying 700 Marines to quell Los Angeles unrest

The US Pentagon ordered hundreds of Marine Corps members to Los Angeles to quell unrest that has led to a political stand-off between Washington and officials in the West Coast state.

Chinese and Asian residents in the economically powerful state expressed concern amid fear that, having already suffered under Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, they could become victims of further collateral damage.

Protests broke out last week over sweeping US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the racially diverse state. Trump, who has made illegal immigration a prime focus of his presidency, ordered some 2,000 guardsmen to LA over the weekend over the objections of Newsom and the city’s Mayor Karen Bass, who have accused him of manufacturing a crisis.

The president threatened on Monday to call up 700 members of the US Marine Corps, and US Northern Command issued a statement shortly afterwards that 700 of them had been activated in the area to provide “adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage of the area in support of the lead federal agency”.

The war of words deepened when Trump suggested he would favour arresting the California governor and Newsom dared Washington to do so and “just get it over with”. The governor added that he hoped to never see a time when a president would arrest a sitting US governor in such an “unmistakable step toward authoritarianism”.