The Pentagon announced on Monday that the 700 active-duty Marines who were deployed to the city by the Trump administration will be withdrawn from the L.A. area.
The U.S. Marines have been in L.A. since June 7 -- about a month and a half deployment during which they did very little. Some were stationed outside of federal buildings in the area, but most of them were living on a military base in Orange County.
"They will be leaving Los Angeles. They were never needed in the first place. It was a misuse of our troops," Bass said.
Ever since they were first deployed, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had been pushing the White House to remove the Marines and the California National Guard.
Earlier this month, about 2,000 National Guard members -- also deployed by President Donald Trump -- were removed. On Monday, the Pentagon issued a statement saying the Marines will be leaving, reading in part, "Their rapid response, unwavering discipline, and unmistakable presence were instrumental in restoring order and upholding the rule of law."
"The Marines that were never needed here, that never played a role in crowd control," Bass said. "They're not trained to do that. They're trained to kill the enemy on foreign lands. The enemy is not Angelenos."
Bass held a news conference on Monday at L.A. Mission College in Sylmar, where she and other local lawmakers and veterans described the military presence as an expensive political stunt.
Bass says their presence is unnecessary and a misuse of taxes, and she also says this is not what the military is trained for.
"We all feel appalled at the misuse of our troops right now. The militarization that has taken place of the National Guard, the inappropriate deployment of the Marines to our city streets -- neither of whom are trained and ready to do urban... whether you are doing crowd control or dealing with conflicts on a domestic basis. That is not what our Marines do," Bass said.
The deployments, according to the Pentagon, are set to cost upwards of $134 million in taxpayer funds.
When the protests against federal immigration enforcement operations started in early June, 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines were deployed to the city to protect federal buildings.
Their deployment was carried out without the approval of Gov. Gavin Newsom and local leaders.
The number of National Guard troops in L.A. was reduced by half to 2,000 members last week.
During the press conference, Bass stressed that L.A. is not enmeshed with the military like other cities, and said many of the National Guard soldiers are part-time workers who left families, work, and school to be in L.A.
Bass also noted that millions of dollars were used to pay for police overtime during those protests -- protests that she says would not have happened if the federal troops were not in the city.
Not all the troops are gone. There are still an estimated 2,000 National Guard members deployed in the Los Angeles area.
The mayor's latest push to get them out of the city comes after she appeared on ABC's "This Week," where she called the deployment a misuse of tax dollars and performative.
"We want to work with this administration to solve this problem. We have the World Cup in 11 short months here. We have the Olympics and Paralympics coming in three short years," Bass said during the interview.
"I know that these games are very important to the president, and I look forward to working with him. We have an extreme difference on this issue, but there's many issues for us to work on," she said.
According to a report from the New York Times, more than 100 National Guard troops who were deployed to L.A. have received counseling for their mission. The Times also reported that there is concern that their deployment may affect future recruitment numbers.