LOS ANGELES (CNN) — The 700 Marines mobilized to the Los Angeles area on Monday night are still undergoing training as of Wednesday morning, and it is not yet clear when they will be employed onto the streets to help with protests, according to a US Northern Command spokesperson.
The spokesperson told CNN that as of Wednesday morning, the Marines “have NOT completed their [Standing Rules for the Use of Force] and nonlethal weapons training, and I do not have an estimate of when they will be employed by Task Force 51.”
Task Force 51 is US Army North’s Contingency Command Post, which provides rapidly deployable troops to respond to homeland defense operations.
CNN reported on Tuesday that the Marines were still undergoing training, despite Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth telling lawmakers that all the troops that had been deployed were already trained for the mission.
The troops in LA, including the Marines, are authorized to temporarily detain people only in a very specific circumstance, which is when de-escalation is not working and someone needs to be temporarily detained by a service member until they can be passed off to law enforcement.
CNN’s affiliate captured aerial footage on Tuesday of Marines undergoing their training, in which they appeared to be practicing detaining people. The training captured on camera involved “non-lethal crowd control techniques, for the purpose of de-escalating any situation they are dispatched to address in support of protecting federal personnel or property,” according to Marine Corps spokesperson Lt. Col. Joshua Benson.
ABC 10News also reached out to the military about the Marines' training, and a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson said as of 12:15 p.m. they were still conducting the pre-mission training.
"No other active-duty Marines have been deployed to other locations and cities at this time," the spokesperson says. "Like the National Guard battalion in a Title 10 status, these Marines will protect federal functions, personnel, and property, which includes accompanying federal personnel on missions."
