WASHINGTON — Earlier than being deployed to Los Angeles throughout anti-ICE protests final summer season, U.S. Marines were given 12 guidelines for partaking with protesters, and Rule 1 was clear: Force “of any type” was allowed solely as a final resort.
If force were used, the rule said, it “ought to be the minimal needed to accomplish the mission.”
That element is amongst 178 pages of federal paperwork launched by the Marine Corps to the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight by way of the Freedom of Info Act and shared solely with The Instances.
The paperwork paint a radical image of how Marines ready to deploy in Southern California, the place they stood alongside Nationwide Guard members and brokers with the Division of Homeland Safety.
The paperwork additionally illuminate a evident distinction between the coaching of Marines and that of immigration brokers, who’ve been accused repeatedly of utilizing pointless force in opposition to peaceable protesters, bystanders and immigrants throughout enforcement operations.
“Satirically, I’d’ve felt a lot safer with Marine engagement than with DHS due to the depth of coaching,” mentioned Ryan Schwank, a former teacher for Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruits on the ICE Academy throughout the Federal Legislation Enforcement Coaching Heart in Georgia.
Schwank is a whistleblower who resigned in February after revealing that the Trump administration had slashed immigration officer coaching. After reviewing the paperwork obtained by American Oversight, he mentioned the coaching given to Marines on crowd management was “considerably extra in-depth and longer than coaching given to an ICE officer, even underneath the perfect of circumstances.”
An ICE agent walks by way of tear gasoline that was fired to push protesters again throughout a raid on Atlantic Boulevard within the metropolis of Bell on June 20, 2025.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
The Division of Homeland Safety didn’t reply to questions and as a substitute pointed to a February information launch that mentioned coaching has not been in the reduction of and that new hires obtain extra coaching after leaving the academy.
“ICE legislation enforcement officers are educated to use the minimal quantity of force needed to resolve harmful conditions to prioritize the security of the general public and our officers,” mentioned Lauren Bis, a division spokesperson. “Officers are extremely educated in de-escalation ways and recurrently obtain ongoing use of force coaching.”
Schwank famous that the Marines and ICE officers got here to Southern California with totally different targets: As protectors of individuals and property, the Marines had a extra restricted, reactive mission, whereas ICE officers were charged with making arrests, a confrontational position.
“We’re giving [ICE officers] much less coaching on it and fewer refreshers than the Marines are getting and but we’re placing them in a state of affairs the place they’re taking the extra confrontational actions to the place they’re extra probably to have to make split-second selections,” Schwank mentioned.
For many of historical past, he added, ICE brokers detained individuals who were already within the custody of one other legislation enforcement company. He mentioned ICE was by no means meant to act as riot police.
“The true basic drawback isn’t ICE brokers utilizing force,” Schwank mentioned. “It’s ICE brokers utilizing force in an setting they don’t seem to be educated for.”
The coaching of Marines, and the lead-up to their deployment, is printed within the paperwork reviewed by The Instances.
On June 6, a commanding normal emailed different generals to say that “national-level management” had directed Marines to assume an “alert posture” and be prepared to assist the Los Angeles Police Division, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division and ICE officers who were already responding to civil unrest in downtown Los Angeles.
The Marines would safeguard federal services and thus “defend lives and property by way of the restoration of civil order,” the e-mail mentioned.
The Trump administration directed 4,200 California Nationwide Guard troopers and 700 Marines to Southern California beginning June 7.
Marines push again anti-ICE protesters in entrance of the Federal Constructing throughout a “No Kings Day” in downtown Los Angeles final June.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Instances)
First, although, they wanted to be educated.
The five-day course reviewed use-of-force insurance policies, less-lethal weapons and dealing with of civil disturbances.
Total, the 12 guidelines emphasised security, urging Marines to be affordable, to de-escalate tensions and to keep away from confrontations with people who posed no risk.
Marines might use non-deadly force, if needed, to management a state of affairs or defend themselves or different federal personnel, and lethal force “solely when all lesser means have failed.”
“Train due regard for the security of harmless bystanders when utilizing any sort of force,” the foundations state.
Schwank mentioned there isn’t a equal to the Marines course at Homeland Safety. When he left the academy in February, he mentioned, “there was no crowd management coaching, interval.”
Crowd management was briefly added to the curriculum in 2021 for knowledgeable legislation enforcement officers, he mentioned, but it surely was later eliminated. ICE recruits can also have gotten classes on crowd management after leaving the academy and becoming a member of their respective discipline places of work, he mentioned.
When Schwank left the company, a six-hour class referred to as “Public Order Public Security” was in improvement for the 2026 curriculum, in accordance to paperwork he offered to Congress. Homeland Safety didn’t reply when requested if the category had began.
“I wouldn’t assume that any of the ICE officers on scene in L.A. had obtained any form of precise crowd management class,” Schwank mentioned. “They could have gotten a one-to-two-hour PowerPoint slideshow, however that might’ve been it.”
Marine Col. Beth R. Smith confirmed that all the 2nd Battalion seventh Marines obtained tutorial and sensible coaching earlier than deploying to Los Angeles.
Managing civil disturbances has been a problem for Homeland Safety since at the very least 2021, in accordance to an audit carried out by the company’s inner watchdog overview of a 2020 deployment to Portland, Ore.
That yr, President Trump mobilized federal energy in opposition to the protests that spilled into Portland streets after the homicide of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Trump despatched 755 Homeland Safety brokers to defend federal property in what would come to be seen as a dry run for a lot bigger operations of his second time period.
A protester damages a Waymo automobile at Los Angeles Avenue and Arcadia Avenue in L.A. on June 8, 2025.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
Nested on rooftops, brokers launched chemical weapons in opposition to protesters. Floor forces fired less-lethal rounds at point-blank vary and compelled members into unmarked vans with out rationalization.
The audit by the Homeland Safety inspector normal discovered that solely seven of 63 officers reviewed had obtained any degree of riot and crowd management coaching. Some officers told investigators that they wanted extra coaching, and lots of “questioned their involvement within the operation” due to the shortage of preparation.
”With out the mandatory insurance policies, coaching, and gear, DHS will proceed to face challenges securing Federal services during times of civil disturbance that would lead to damage, dying, and legal responsibility,” the audit concluded.
As of spring 2025, Homeland Safety information present, the division had not corrected the coaching failures flagged within the audit years earlier.
Schwank agreed that the considerations raised within the inspector normal’s report were by no means addressed.
Liz Hempowicz, deputy govt director of American Oversight, mentioned the Marine Corps’ emphasis on de-escalation and on utilizing force solely as a final resort stands in stark distinction to what occurred on the bottom in Los Angeles with immigration brokers.
The practices outlined within the paperwork “differ from positions taken by senior DHS management, whose separate inner communications revealed a mindset that appeared much more encouraging of violence,” she mentioned.
Inside Homeland Safety emails additionally obtained by American Oversight revealed that the company’s lead lawyer mentioned federal brokers in Los Angeles ought to have “simply began hitting the rioters and arresting everybody that couldn’t get away.”
“These information underscore that the distinction between disciplined restraint and pointless hurt can come down to the tone set on the high — and when that tone shifts towards hostility, the human price might be devastating,” Hempowicz mentioned.
Jennifer Kavanagh, director of army evaluation at Protection Priorities, a army analysis group, mentioned that for Homeland Safety, the difficulty is partly a coaching deficiency and partly a cultural shift in opposition to agent accountability.
“Trump talks about ‘the enemy inside’ — that is what he’s speaking about,” she mentioned. “To some at DHS, the enemy inside is all immigrants, it’s cartels — it’s additionally teams which are protesting the federal government.”
Conversely, the Marines’ paperwork emphasised private legal responsibility and duty. For instance, one web page mentioned that “should you both use extra force than is important, or reply with DEADLY-force to a NON-deadly risk — You’ll probably lose your proper to self-defense, and you can be considered, underneath the legislation, as the ‘Aggressor.’”
Marines were told to instantly report anybody violating the 12 guidelines of engagement.
The excessive degree of coaching for Marines reveals that command thought-about the optics of army personnel harming and even killing civilians, Kavanagh mentioned. However simply because the deployment labored out final yr doesn’t make it a good suggestion in the long term, she mentioned.
Kavanagh, alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass, and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, opposed the army deployments to Los Angeles final yr, sustaining that Marines are educated for overseas fight, not home crowd management.
“I see these deployments as a recipe for catastrophe,” she mentioned.
Schwank mentioned ICE’s coaching touches on private legal responsibility however not in as a lot depth. Final fall, Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of employees, mentioned ICE officers “have federal immunity within the conduct of your duties, and anyone who lays a hand on you or tries to cease you or tries to impede you is committing a felony.”
On the bottom in Los Angeles, ICE brokers and different native legislation enforcement fired a variety of less-lethal weapons at protesters, such as pepper balls, arduous foam rounds or canisters delivering flash-bang grenades and tear gasoline.
At a June 12 protest, a federal agent shoved freelance journalist Anna Sophia Moltke to the bottom, inflicting sprains on her left arm and leg and deep scrapes to her hip and knee which have since scarred. She was carrying a digicam, she mentioned, and wore clear press credentials and a helmet that mentioned “PRESS.”
“I keep in mind distinctly there being no violence in any respect till police and ICE confirmed up,” she mentioned. “We noticed them firing rubber bullets into the group. Individuals began working away. I used to be midway circled after they began speeding the group, and a tall, 6-foot-4 masked man used each arms to push me onto the concrete.”
Moltke mentioned she recalled a big group of protesters gathered close to the Marines stationed on the northern finish of the detention middle, simply earlier than police and ICE swept by way of and compelled her to the bottom. To her data, she mentioned the Marines remained at their submit and didn’t take part in road skirmishes.
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