1 day ago
9
Briefing|Hegseth Defended Troop Deployment to Los Angeles
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/briefing/los-angeles-troops-white-house-musk-search.html
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
During a heated congressional hearing today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that President Trump was right to send thousands of troops to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles because “we ought to be able to enforce immigration law in this country.” Hegseth also suggested that the Trump administration would more often use the National Guard for homeland defense.
The president has described the protests as “violent, insurrectionist mobs.” On the ground, the situation has appeared less intense. While the protests have resulted in some injuries and damaged property, they grew calmer through last night. My colleague Jesus Jiménez, who has been reporting on the ground in L.A., told me their scope has been limited: “They aren’t happening across all of L.A. They aren’t even happening across all of downtown L.A. They’re happening in a pocket of downtown, mostly around federal buildings.”
My colleague Livia Albeck-Ripka was hit by a crowd-control munition round while covering the protests. Watch her video describing the experience.
Video
This afternoon, Trump took credit for the easing tensions. “I stopped the violence in L.A.,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. But California officials called the deployments unnecessary and provocative, and they asked a federal court for an emergency order to restrict the use of troops in Los Angeles.
Some legal experts have questioned Trump’s authority to use troops to contain the protests: Active duty forces are barred from engaging in domestic law enforcement, unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act. “It is hard to see how the Los Angeles protests, which are scattered and not really affecting life in the city in a widespread way, can be seen as an insurrection,” our Pentagon correspondent, Helene Cooper, said.
