Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar on Monday to continue her calls for the removal of military troops from the city.
Thousands of troops, including members of the California National Guard and the U.S. Marines, were sent to Los Angeles amid immigration raids and protests.
Though half of the 4,000 National Guard troops have since been sent home, Bass and other local leaders want all the troops out of Los Angeles, as they could be better used elsewhere.
“We need the National Guard to assist us in preparing for fire season, not for an inappropriate deployment where they’re just guarding a building that’s not under attack,” she said.
Troops were deployed to defend the Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood and other sites, but they never faced a challenge, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“There’s not much to do,” a Marine told the Times.
Bass was joined by state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Marine Corps veteran.
“We did not sign up to intimidate and potentially take military actions against Americans on American soil who are exercising their Constitutional right to protest,” she said.
Bass encouraged people to write to their representatives in Congress and make the case to them that the military is not needed in L.A.
