LOS ANGELES — A federal judge will hear arguments in open court Thursday over the Trump administration’s deployment of both state National Guard forces and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles amid mass protests over sweeping federal immigration enforcement efforts.

California asked the court Tuesday for a temporary restraining order blocking the deployments, arguing the Trump administration intended for the military forces to “accompany federal immigration enforcement officers on raids throughout Los Angeles” and “must be stopped, immediately.”

The Trump administration, in a response, said the state’s request was “legally meritless,” sought “extraordinary, unprecedented, and dangerous” relief and should be denied. It asked for 24 hours more to respond in detail.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, in an order Tuesday afternoon, gave the Trump administration until Wednesday to offer its response. He then gave California until 9 a.m. Thursday to respond, and set a hearing on the matter for Thursday afternoon.

The state’s request was filed in the same federal lawsuit brought by California and Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday, in which they allege Trump had exceeded his authority and violated the U.S. Constitution by sending military forces into an American city without the request or approval of the state governor or local officials.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is handling the litigation on behalf of both Newsom and the state, said the restraining order was necessary to bring an immediate stop to the deployments, which local officials have contended are not needed and are only adding to tensions sparked by sweeping federal immigration detentions and arrests in communities with large immigrant populations.

“The president has decided to do something that was unnecessary and counterproductive. The president has decided to escalate and provoke, to inflame tensions, to antagonize and to create a confrontational situation,” Bonta said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. “It is the opposite of enhancing public safety. It’s increasing the risk to public safety, and the president has chosen that, unfortunately.”

Bonta said Trump had taken National Guard forces away from fighting fentanyl trafficking at the southern border and wildfires in the state to stand around federal buildings in L.A. without any real purpose or sufficient provisions or sleeping arrangements — which he called a “disrespectful” waste of valuable resources.

“It’s very disrespectful and manipulative and abusive of the president to treat the members of the military this way,” he said. “People who are hardworking public servants, patriots — he’s using them as a political pawn.”

Newsom, in his statement, echoed Bonta, saying the federal government “is now turning the military against American citizens.”

“Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy,” Newsom said. “Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a President.”

Trump told U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina that he deployed thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles “to protect federal law enforcement from the attacks of a vicious and violent mob.”

“Some of the radical left, they say, ‘Oh, that’s not nice,’” Trump said. “Well, if we didn’t do it, there wouldn’t be a Los Angeles. It would be burning today, just like their houses were burning a number of months ago.”

His remarks were an apparent reference to the wildfires that devastated large parts of the city and surrounding areas, including Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

“What you are witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

Of the state’s lawsuit, Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said California officials should instead be thanking Trump for “restoring law and order” there.

“Gavin Newsom should march back to his attorney general’s office to prosecute the anti-ICE rioters who burned property and looted businesses in Los Angeles,” Kelly said. “It’s pathetic that Newsom is more focused on saving face than protecting law enforcement and holding criminals accountable.”

The state initially requested that the restraining order be granted by Tuesday afternoon “to prevent immediate and irreparable harm” to California.

Absent such relief, the Trump administration’s “use of the military and the federalized National Guard to patrol communities or otherwise engage in general law enforcement activities creates imminent harm to State Sovereignty, deprives the State of vital resources, escalates tensions and promotes (rather than quells) civil unrest,” the state contends.

The request specifically notes that the use of military forces such as Marines to conduct domestic policing tasks is unlawful, and that Trump administration officials have stated that is how the Marines being deployed to Los Angeles may be used.

“For more than a century, the Posse Comitatus Act has expressly prohibited the use of the active duty armed forces and federalized national guard for civilian law enforcement,” the state’s request states. “And the President and Secretary Hegseth have made clear — publicly and privately — that the Marines are not in Los Angeles to stand outside a federal building.”

At Trump’s direction, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mobilized nearly 2,000 members of the state’s National Guard on Saturday after the president said L.A. was descending into chaos and federal agents were in danger. Hegseth then mobilized another 2,000 members Monday. The Pentagon approved the deployment of 700 U.S. Marines from the base in Twentynine Palms to L.A. on Monday, with the stated mission of protecting federal buildings and agents.

The defense secretary said the deployments would last 60 days, and the acting Pentagon budget chief said the cost would be at least $134 million. Hegseth told members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that the length of the deployments was intended to “ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere.”

Local officials have decried acts of violence, property damage and burglaries that have occurred in tandem with the protests, but have also said that Trump administration officials have blown the problems out of proportion and that there is no need for federal forces in the city.

Constitutional scholars and some members of Congress have also questioned the domestic deployment of military forces, especially without the consent of local and state officials — calling it a tactic of dictators and authoritarian regimes.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass questioned what Marines would do on the ground, while LAPD police Chief Jim McDonnell said the arrival of military forces in the city without “clear coordination” with local law enforcement “presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us tasked with safeguarding this city.”

Bonta had said Monday that the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits federal power around such deployments, that the deployment of National Guard forces to quell protests without Newsom’s consent was “unlawful” and “unprecedented” and that the deployment of Marines would be “similarly unlawful.”

On Tuesday, he said the state was asking the court to “immediately block the Trump Administration from ordering the military or federalized national guard from patrolling our communities or otherwise engaging in general law enforcement activities beyond federal property.”

The protests have been geographically limited, mostly occurring downtown and in a few scattered neighborhoods where immigration agents have conducted raids. They have caused damage in those neighborhoods and produced dramatic images of police skirmish lines and burning vehicles — prompting Bass to consider a downtown curfew — but have remained smaller than similar protests in the past.

Local officials say the protests are nothing that local and state police can’t handle.

Trump and other administration officials have painted a very different picture, however, suggesting publicly that the city is in far worse shape than local officials are letting on. Hegseth told the House subcommittee that military forces were needed in the city to protect federal agents conducting immigration raids — which the administration has said will continue.

“We believe ICE agents should be allowed to be safe in doing their operations and we have deployed National Guard and the Marines to protect them in the execution of their duties because we ought be able to enforce immigration law in this country,” Hegseth said.

The deployments have stirred up concerns across California and beyond.

Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff sent a letter to Hegseth on Tuesday demanding to know what authority the Trump administration believed it had to send Marines into L.A. — calling it a “reckless decision.”

U.S. Conference of Mayors President Andrew Ginther, who is also the mayor of Columbus, Ohio, said in a statement that the “streets of American cities are no place for the U.S. military.”

“Law enforcement is a local responsibility, and America’s mayors support Mayor Bass as she works with state authorities to promote order in her city,” Ginther said. “Protest, carried out peacefully, is a bedrock of our democracy. However, violence, theft, and destruction of property can never be tolerated. We have every confidence that Mayor Bass and state officials can manage the situation.”

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