While more than 500 protesters rallied at Long Beach City Hall against immigration raids sweeping the region, a small group of men in federal uniforms and military fatigues — at least two with rifles slung on their shoulders — watched them from a balcony across the street.
They were perched atop the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building, where neighbors have reported sightings of camouflaged trucks carrying supplies inside.
But on the street just a block away, when rallygoers briefly occupied a stretch of Ocean Boulevard, only local police faced off with them. Officers formed a skirmish line and warned demonstrators they would be subjected to gas and rubber bullets if they didn’t move. Police soon pulled back and let the crowd naturally disperse without any use of force.
Long Beach police thanked protesters for staying peaceful and confirmed there were no arrests or injuries reported. Some demonstrations elsewhere have turned violent, including burned cars and looted stores in downtown Los Angeles and a local man charged with throwing a Molotov cocktail during Saturday’s protest in Paramount.
In Long Beach, the soldiers’ appearance overlooking the rally Tuesday night was the most visible presence yet of troops coming to the city after Trump ordered the military into Los Angeles County to quell protests that broke out after a blitz of immigration enforcement.
Federal officials did not reveal how many troops are in Long Beach, saying only that 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines have been deployed across the region for at least the next 60 days to protect federal property and personnel.
“They are providing support to prevent the destruction or defacement of federal government property, including crowd control and establishment of security perimeters,” Becky Farmer, a spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command, said in an email. “These personnel are also protecting federal officials from harm or threat of bodily injury while those officials execute their duties.”
They will not be doing any law-enforcement duties, but they can detain people for local police to come make an arrest, their commanding officer said in a media interview Wednesday.
“We are strictly here to protect federal facilities and to protect federal agencies and their personnel and allow them to do their job,” Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman said.
Their mandate stands in stark contrast with a letter signed by Long Beach’s two congressional representatives Tuesday in which they insisted the soldier’s presence was unnecessary, inflammatory and illegal.
“This deployment does not appear to be motivated by any public safety emergency that could not be dealt with successfully by local authorities,” they said in a letter that was also signed by 40 other members of California’s congressional delegation.
It’s a microcosm of the conflict that has been dominating national politics, with President Trump saying greater Los Angeles is being invaded by riotous looters while Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass say he’s manufactured a crisis to experiment with a military crackdown on the streets of an American city.
The political standoff between California’s leaders and the Trump Administration has already advanced to the federal courts. On Tuesday, Newsom filed an emergency motion asking the court to bar the National Guard from quartering troops in cities, patrolling streets and assisting in immigration raids. A hearing for that request is scheduled for Thursday.
“This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers, and even our National Guard at risk,” Newsom said. “That’s when the downward spiral began. He doubled down on his dangerous National Guard deployment by fanning the flames even harder. And the president, he did it on purpose.”
In a filed notice of opposition, Trump called Newsom’s request “legally meritless.”
Back in Long Beach, at a City Council meeting Tuesday night, Mayor Rex Richardson emphasized that he and the council also oppose the ramped-up federal operations in their city but said there was little he could do about it.
“We don’t control the federal government. We don’t control ICE. We don’t control the National Guard. We don’t control this president,” he said as protesters marched outside. “And they don’t notify us when they come into town, unfortunately.”
He urged people to be as prepared as they can in the weeks to come: “The reality is, there is an operation over the next 30 and 60 — who knows how long — days, and there will be activities in our region.”