U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said June 7 that active duty U.S. Marines could respond to Los Angeles demonstrations against federal immigration raids.
A day later, one X user posted a video supposedly showing exactly that.
“Marines have arrived in Los Angeles!” the June 8 X post read, sharing a video of tanks rolling on a road.
(Screenshot from X)
But that’s not what the video showed.
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The United Service Organizations for U.S. Marine Corps. Base Camp Pendleton uploaded the footage to its Facebook page June 4before the Los Angeles protests started. Camp Pendleton is located about 100 miles south of Los Angeles. “Welcome home 1st LAR,” said the video’s caption, referring to the Marine division 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.
The United Service Organizations is a nonprofit that supports service members and their families.
The same day, USO Camp Pendleton posted photos of service members reuniting with their families. “It is always a humbling experience to be there in the presence of the Families and their Service members when they reunite,” the caption read.
The Los Angeles protests started June 6, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided workplaces in Los Angeles. By June 8, the U.S. Northern Command, which spearheads homeland defense efforts, said approximately 500 Marines are “in a prepared to deploy status.”
The U.S. Northern Command said in a June 9 statement that it had “activated” 700 Marines to help protect federal personnel and property in Los Angeles.
But this video doesn’t show Marines arriving to respond to the Los Angeles protests on June 8. We rate that claim False.
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