Los Angeles: The US Department of Defense announced that President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to address ongoing protests in the city against his measures to combat illegal immigration.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on the X platform that “at the President’s direction, the Department of Defense is mobilizing an additional 2,000 California National Guard troops to be placed in federal service to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement and enable federal law enforcement to safely perform their duties.”

The Pentagon’s announcement came shortly after the US Army released a statement saying it would deploy 700 Marines to Los Angeles. In its statement, North American Command said the ongoing operation in Los Angeles, dubbed “Task Force 51,” includes “approximately 2,100 National Guard troops” and “700 active-duty Marines.”

The statement confirmed that all of them “received training in de-escalation, crowd management, and the rules of use of force.” Deploying active-duty military personnel to the US is considered an exceptional decision.