Marines take over some security in LA while cities across US prep for 'No Kings' rallies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After a week of protests over federal immigration raids, about 200 Marines moved into Los Angeles on Friday to guard a federal building in the city while communities across the country prepped for what’s anticipated to be a nationwide wave of large-scale demonstrations against President Donald Trump’s polices this weekend.

The Marine troops wearing combat gear and carrying rifles took over some posts from National Guard members who were deployed to the city after the protests erupted last week. Those protests sparked dozens more over several days around the country, with some leading to clashes with police and hundreds of arrests.

On Friday, Marines started to replace Guard members protecting the federal building west of downtown, so the Guard soldiers can be assigned to protect law enforcement officers on raids, the commander in charge of 4,700 troops deployed to the LA protests said.

The Marines moved into Los Angeles before Saturday’s planned “No Kings” demonstrations nationally against Trump’s policies, which will also happen the same day as a military parade in Washington, D.C.

The Marines’ arrival also came a day after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order that had directed Trump to return control of Guard troops to California. The judge had ruled the Guard deployment was illegal, violated the Tenth Amendment, which defines the power between state and federal governments, and exceeded Trump’s statutory authority. The judge did not rule on the presence of the Marines.

Some 2,000 National Guard troops were deployed to Los Angeles this week. Hundreds have provided protection to immigration agents making arrests. Another 2,000 Guard members were notified of deployment earlier this week.

Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, the commander of Task Force 51 who is overseeing the 4,700 combined troops, said none of the military troops will be detaining anyone, though the Marines temporarily detained a man Friday afternoon who had walked onto the property and did not immediately hear their commands to stop. He was later released without charges.

Roughly 500 National Guard members have been used to provide security on immigration raids after undergoing expanded instruction, legal training and rehearsals with the agents doing the enforcement before they go on those missions.

When asked about working together with the Marines, Los Angeles police Chief Jim McDonnell said he “wouldn’t call it coordination” but said he and the county sheriff were on a call with military senior leadership Thursday to open lines of communication in case situations arise where collaboration is needed.

Under federal law, active-duty forces are prohibited by law from conducting law enforcement.

By mid-afternoon Friday, more than a dozen Marines were stationed outside the 17-story Wilshire Federal Building. They mostly appeared to be checking tickets from members of the public who were there to renew their passports.

The federal building is the same place Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on Thursday was forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference and handcuffed by officers as he tried to speak up about the immigration raids.

There were no protesters around the building. Occasionally, a passing driver shouted from their window, registering a mix of anger and support for the military presence.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called the troop deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty” and a power grab by Trump, and he has gone to court to stop it. The president has cited a legal provision that allows him to mobilize federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

A federal judge said in a ruling late Thursday that what is happening in Los Angeles does not meet the definition of a rebellion and issued an order to return control of the Guard to California before the appeals court stopped it from going into effect Friday. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump thanked the appeals court Friday morning.

“If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now,” he said.

The court will hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday.

The Trump administration has characterized the city as a “war zone,” which local authorities dispute. Recent protesters have drawn a few hundred attendees who marched through downtown chanting, dancing and poking fun at the Trump administration’s characterization of the city.

There have been about 500 arrests since Saturday, mostly for failing to leave the area at the request of law enforcement, according to the police. There have been a handful of more serious charges, including for assault against officers and for possession of a Molotov cocktail and a gun. Nine officers have been hurt, mostly with minor injuries.

An 8 p.m. curfew has been in place in a 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section of downtown. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers). Protests have ended after a few hours with arrests this week largely for failure to disperse. Mayor Karen Bass said Friday there was no termination date for the curfew yet.

The occasional motorist, cyclist and pedestrian passed in front of the federal building and the troops guarding it as the curfew took effect Friday. Residents living in the curfew zone and traveling to and from work there are exempt from the rule.

The “No Kings” demonstrations are planned in nearly 2,000 locations around the country, according to the movement’s website.

A flagship march and rally is planned for Philadelphia, but no protests are scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., where the military parade will be held. Participants are expected to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation, organizers say.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has put 5,000 National Guard members on standby in cities where demonstrations are planned. In other Republican-controlled states, governors have not said when or how they may deploy troops.

A group of Democratic governors in a statement called Trump’s deployments “an alarming abuse of power.”

The military parade in Washington will also feature concerts, fireworks, NFL players, fitness competitions and displays all over the National Mall for daylong festivities. The celebration Saturday also happens to be Trump’s birthday.

The Army expects as many as 200,000 people could attend and says putting on the celebration will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million.

Saturday is also Flag Day, which celebrates the adoption of the U.S. flag in 1777.

California Democratic state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas turned an American flag on her desk upside-down in protest of the federal immigration crackdown in Los Angeles during a Friday legislative session honoring the holiday.

“What is happening in this country, what is happening in my city makes me feel distressed as an American,” said Smallwood-Cuevas, who represents downtown Los Angeles.

Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California. Baldor contributed from Washington.

A U.S Marine adjusts their radio and outside of a federal building Friday, June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

U.S Marines guard a federal building, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

U.S Marines work next to members of the California National Guard outside of a federal building, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A U.S Marine guards a federal building, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

U.S Marines work outside of a federal building, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Protesters are loaded onto Los Angeles Police Department buses during a protest on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is pushed out of the room as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference regarding the recent protests in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Metro police on horseback disperse protesters on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

A man shouts into a megaphone outside City Hall during protests over federal immigration enforcement raids on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Police confront a protesters outside City Hall during protests over federal immigration enforcement raids on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas on Monday even as crews search urgently for the missing following a holiday weekend deluge that killed at least 82 people, including children at summer camps. Officials said the death toll was sure to rise.

Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from rapidly rising floodwaters late Friday.

Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.

“Then they were able to reach their toolshed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.

A few miles away, rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain filled with snakes continued their search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp that sustained massive damage.

Gov. Greg Abbott said 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.

In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said.

Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials.

The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated.

Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man whose daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.

One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window at the wreckage.

Nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak.

Volunteers and some families of the missing came to the disaster zone and searched despite being asked not to do so.

Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.

President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday: “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way.”

“It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible,” he told reporters.

Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. The first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, saying, “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”

Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics, praying the water wouldn’t reach them.

At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.

Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.

Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls’ grandparents were unaccounted for.

On Thursday the National Weather Service advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.

Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response.

Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something “we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.” He has said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and sharply criticized its performance.

Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending cuts.

“I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn’t see it,” the president said.

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Morristown, N.J.; and Nicole Winfield in Rome.

Myra Zunker takes a moment while searching for her missing niece and nephew along the Guadalupe River on Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A person pulls luggage at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A person salvages a bell from the main building at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Officials inspect an area at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Onlookers review the damage along the Guadalupe River caused by recent flooding, Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez)