700 active-duty Marines will be leaving Los Angeles, Pentagon confirms

LOS ANGELES -- The 700 active-duty Marines who were deployed to Los Angeles as a result of last month's protests against immigration enforcement across the region will be leaving, the Pentagon announced Monday.

Last week, the Pentagon announced that 2,000 federalized California National Guardsmen were also being moved out of the city. That's half the amount that was originally sent.

When the protests against federal immigration enforcement operations started in early June, 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines were deployed to the city by the Trump administration to protect federal buildings.

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, issued the following statement to ABC News.

"With stability returning to Los Angeles, the Secretary has directed the redeployment of the 700 Marines whose presence sent a clear message: lawlessness will not be tolerated. Their rapid response, unwavering discipline, and unmistakable presence were instrumental in restoring order and upholding the rule of law. We're deeply grateful for their service, and for the strength and professionalism they brought to this mission."

During their short deployment, some of the Marines were stationed outside of federal buildings in the area, but most of them were living on a military base in Orange County.

"They will be leaving Los Angeles. They were never needed in the first place. It was a misuse of our troops," L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said.

Ever since they were first deployed, Bass had been pushing the White House to remove the Marines and the California National Guard.

"The Marines that were never needed here, that never played a role in crowd control," Bass said. "They're not trained to do that. They're trained to kill the enemy on foreign lands. The enemy is not Angelenos."