Hegseth spars with Senate Democrats over Marine deployment to LA anti-ICE riots: 'Not about lethality'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparred with Democratic senators during a hearing Wednesday about the Trump administration's deployment of 700 Marines to Los Angeles amid the ongoing anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots. 

In his opening statement before the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Hegseth reiterated how President Donald Trump charged him to focus on restoring "warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards and readiness" to the Department of Defense – a point Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., later honed in on during his line of questioning for the secretary. 

Reed noted that the Trump administration federalized 4,000 California National Guard members and deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles. 

Reed said what is happening in Los Angeles comes in addition to the approximately 11,000 military personnel, including active duty soldiers and National Guard members, who have deployed to the southern border in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection – a figure which Hegseth corrected. The Defense secretary said some 13,000 military personnel have deployed to the southern border and that he has visited those troops several times. 

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing titled, "A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the Department of Defense," on June 11, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"People will say that mobilization hurts readiness. When you talk to them, it actually improves their readiness," Hegseth said. 

Reed told Hegseth, "Your whole ethic seems to be revolved on the lethality of the military force. How is this operation with Marines and National Guardsmen improving their lethality?

"Readiness and training and accountability is all about lethality," Hegseth said. "The more ready you are, the more capable you are, the more accountable you are, the higher your standards are, it all makes you more lethal." 

"The mission in Los Angeles, as you know well, sir, is not about lethality," the secretary continued. "It's about maintaining law and order on behalf of law enforcement agents who deserve to do their job without being attacked by mobs of people. We are very proud that the National Guard and the Marines are on the streets defending the ICE agents, and they will continue." 

A Defense official told Fox News that the Marines who arrived in Los Angeles are an infantry unit and are still undergoing training, including in nonlethal weapons and use of force protocols in a domestic setting, at Seal Beach. They have not yet been tapped to respond to street demonstrations as of Wednesday morning.

Reed argued that "law and order is a civil function under the Constitution," but Hegseth said that "there is plenty of precedent for the U.S. supporting law enforcement officers." 

"What your military is doing right now is laying concertina wire, guarding buildings, maintaining vehicles for other services," Reed said. "This is not only, I think, illegal, but also a diminution of the readiness and the focus of the military." 

Graffiti saying "Blame Trump" is seen in downtown Los Angeles on June 11, 2025, as Gov. Gavin Newsom has argued President Donald Trump's intervention escalated the riots. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration for federalizing the National Guard to respond to the riots and for tapping the Marines. A federal judge on Tuesday night declined California's request for an immediate restraining order to block Trump's use of military personnel and scheduled a court hearing to further weigh the legality of the matter for Thursday. 

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In a separate line of questioning at the Senate hearing Wednesday, Hegseth said Newsom "wants to play politics." 

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, had asked another witness, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. John D. Caine, if the United States had been "invaded by a foreign nation" or if "there is a rebellion somewhere in the United States." 

Caine deferred to the Department of Homeland Security to answer border-related questions in terms of a potential invasion and added on the question of a rebellion that, "there are certainly some frustrated folks out there." 

"It’s quite easy to point out that there has been an invasion of 21 million illegals in our country under the previous administration, so this administration was elected to get a hold of that," Hegseth added. "And when you have ICE officers being attacked with concrete blocks, they should be allowed to do their jobs." 

From left to right, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Acting Pentagon Comptroller Bryn MacDonnell prepare to testify before a Senate Appropriations Committee on June 11, 2025. (ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Schatz interjected, telling Hegseth he would "really like not to create a viral moment." 

The senator said he was trying to "understand the scope of the order," which, he says, does not specify a location or which Marines or which Guard members would be mobilized. 

"Did you just mobilize every guard everywhere and every service member everywhere? I mean, create the framework for that," Schatz said. 

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Hegseth said an initial order federalized 2,000 National Guard troops in California and there was a follow-up order for an additional 2,000 members because the situation there "required more resources in order to support law enforcement." 

"So part of it is getting ahead of a problem, so that if in other places, if there are other riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened, we would have the capability to surge National Guard there if necessary," Hegseth said. "And thankfully, in most of those states, you'd have a governor that recognizes the need for it, supports it, and mobilizes it, him or herself. In California, unfortunately, the governor wants to play politics with it." 

Fox News' Liz Friden contributed to this report.