Pete Hegseth in heated exchange over deployment of Marines to Los Angeles

Open the newsletter to watch the White House for free

Your guide to what the second period of Trump means to Washington, business and the world

US Defense Minister Beit Higseth defended the deployment of US Navy in Los Angeles to “impose the Immigration Law”, and Democratic lawmakers insisted on the existence of “no need” to publish.

On the hot exchanges often, the actors suggested that President Donald Trump lacks power To send soldiersInsisting that law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles were fully able to deal with the protests that rocked the city without the help of federal forces.

Higseth was witnessing before the sub -committee for the parliament’s credits to defend the Pentagon’s budget request for 2026. Democratic lawmakers took advantage of the opportunity to question Some veterans of military warriors Aden as abuse of the executive authority.

“We have published the National Guard and the Marine Corps to protect them [federal immigration officials] In implementing their duties, ” Higseth He said, “Because we must be able to impose the immigration law in this country.”

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it will send 700 naval infantry to Los Angeles, due to the objections of California Governor Gavin New Zoom. The northern American leadership said that the marine infantry would be sent to protect “federal employees and federal property.”

Higseth said that the marine infantry will support the enforcement agents of immigration and customs, whose actions have caused the detention of alleged immigrants who are not documented during the past few weeks in Los Angeles.

“In Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely performing operations in any state and any judicial state in the country, especially after 21 million illegal crossed our borders under the previous administration,” he said.

Experts have wondered about 21 million, often used by the Trump administration, and they appreciate the real number to be closer to 7 million meters.

The transfer to the deployment of the Marine Corps to Los Angeles came a few hours after a lawsuit against the news of Trump to take a previous decision to deploy the National Guard forces to store anti -ice protests without supporting the ruler.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in the Federal Court, called the president’s decision to “” unprecedented rape of the State Authority. “

The last time the head of the National Guard forces was sent to deal with civil unrest without approval and ruler cooperation in 1965.

The military forces often help in the United States during natural disasters, but it is rare to be sent to help local law enforce, especially without the support of the state ruler.

The decision to send the marine infantry was sharply criticized by Betty Mcalum, a member of the Democratic Committee, who told Higseth that it was “no need to spread the Marines.”

She said, “History has proven that the application of law and the National Guard more than one is able to deal with situations more volatile than this ends this week,” in Los Angeles.

Mcalum said that the turmoil “does not seem like George Floyd’s protests [in 2020] Or Rodney King’s riots in Los Angeles in 1992.

She said: “This is a very unfair position to put our marine infantry.” “Their service should be honored. It should not be exploited.”

Beit Aguilar, the Democratic actor from California, asked Higseth about what justification is to use the army for the purpose of enforcement of the civil law.

He pointed out that Trump called for law, 10 USC 12406, which allows the president only to contact the members of the National Guard and units in federal service under certain circumstances – such as the invasion by a foreign state, or rebellion against government authority, or when the president is not able to implement American laws with ordinary force.

Higseth said that the American authorities are currently facing the “three” scenarios in Los Angeles. “If you have millions of illegitimately referred and you do not know where they came from, they are waving flags from foreign countries and the attack of police officers, it is a problem.”

“We want to make sure that these rioters, the rich and thugs on the other side, and the attack on our police officers, we know that we will not go anywhere,” said Aguar’s Minister of Defense for the period in which the maritime deployment will continue.