Bass calls for end of National Guard, Marine deployment in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday joined lawmakers to call for the full removal of federal troops still present in Los Angeles. 

‘Wasting your taxpayer dollars'

What we know:

Bass, who was joined by State Senator Caroline Menjivar and veterans and families of service members, called the "inappropriate deployment" a "misuse of our troops." 

"Whether you are doing crowd control or dealing with conflicts on a domestic basis, that is not what our Marines do. They are not authorized to make arrests. They are not doing the work of our local and state law enforcement. They're not trained to do that, and they were never needed to do that," Bass said. 

"I am glad that 2000 of the National Guards were sent back home, but I think that we need to be sensitive to the fact that these men and women, especially in the National Guard, are part-time. They had to leave their families. They had to leave their employment. They had to leave their education. That's not what they signed up for. We need the National Guard to assist us and prepare for fire season, not for an inappropriate development, an inappropriate deployment where they are just guarding a building that is not under attack," she added.

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Bass again called on the Trump administration to stop using troops "as political stunts, to not be used to intimidate Angelenos, to not be used as pawns."

Sen. Menjivar, herself a military veteran, called the deployment "personal and infuriating."

"We did not sign up to intimidate and potentially take military action against Americans on American soil who are exercising their constitutional right to protest," she said. "While 10,000 Guardsmen have been able to go back home, we still have service members deployed in LA literally doing nothing. I'm sorry that's incorrect, they are doing something. They are wasting your taxpayer dollars."

"Our National Guard needs to go back to their jobs as first responders, or as healthcare workers, as teachers, and especially back to their role, their important role as part of the state's Counterdrug Task Force," Menjivar added. 

Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, a national nonprofit that elevates the voices of veterans and military families to have a say in America's democracy, called the deployment of active-duty Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles "a break with long-standing norms and a decision that should concern every American."

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"Let's be clear, this is not a natural disaster. This is not a riot. This is not an emergency requiring rescue teams or battalions," she said. "This is a civilian law enforcement mission, one that should remain squarely in the hands of civilian authorities for nearly 150 years."

Army veteran Stuart Waldamn, who has lived in Los Angeles since 1978, called it "ridiculous" and "so needless." 

"As a business leader, we are concerned that this is the chilling effect that this is having on our local economy. Businesses have customers who aren't coming in right now. They have workers who don't want to come to work because they're afraid or have to leave work because something's happening to a family member," he said. 

"This is overkill, it is unnecessary, and it needs to stop," he added.

The backstory:

This comes after the Trump administration last week reduced the troops' size by half to 2,000 National Guard members.

When the anti-ICE protests first began in June, President Donald Trump originally ordered that 2,000 California National Guard troops be deployed to LA to protect federal buildings and personnel. He then deployed an additional 2,000 troops along with 700 US Marines.

It was a decision that drew criticism since the deployment was carried out despite Gov. Gavin Newsom's objections. 

At this time, 2,000 Guard troops and 700 Marines remain on their deployment in Los Angeles to protect federal assets in the area.

What they're saying:

Following last week's removal of some of the troops, Newsom released a statement saying, "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. We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now."

Bass called the removal a "major victory" and doubled down on her sentiment that troops should never have been deployed to LA in the first place. 

"The administration has finally understood that they need to withdraw the troops. Let me say this is what happens when the city stands strong," Bass stated.  

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Bass again criticized the Trump administration's ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration in the city, saying Los Angeles is dependent on "immigrant labor."

"Because we are a city of immigrants, we have entire sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor. We have to get the fire areas rebuilt. We're not going to get our city rebuilt without immigrant labor," Bass told host Martha Raddatz in an interview broadcast on ABC News' "The Week."

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