The military’s deployment of almost 5,000 National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests will cost around $134 million and last 60 days, the Pentagon’s acting comptroller told lawmakers in a hearing Tuesday.
That funding will come from the Defense Department’s operations and maintenance budget and cover travel, housing, food and other incidental expenses, Bryn MacDonnel said at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing. Together, the description gives the clearest sense yet of the military’s bill for the administration’s controversial deployments to the city.
In the last several days, the Pentagon has approved 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to head to Los Angeles, where they are tasked with protecting federal immigration officials and property. The rapid response comes after a weekend of protests in the area against the Trump administration’s mass deportations.
Democrats — including California state and local officials — have decried the move as escalatory and sued for the troops’ removal.
The cost estimate came during a feisty exchange as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified before the House on Tuesday. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., pressed the secretary to explain why a deployment of active-duty troops was necessary — one of multiple times Democrats raised the issue during the hearing.
“President [Donald] Trump believes in law and order, so he has every authority,” Hegseth said of the deployments.
Aguilar argued the mission rested on shaky legal ground and brought U.S. personnel close to performing domestic law enforcement, which is prohibited unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act.
Experts and former defense officials have said the deployments are technically legal but that they may put the military in a position uncomfortably close to performing domestic law enforcement and partisan politics.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
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