NEW YORK, June 10 (Xinhua) -- After persistent questioning from members of Congress on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth turned to his acting comptroller, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, who said that the amount it would cost to send the National Guard and Marines to immigration protests in Los Angeles would reach 134 million U.S. dollars, coming from operations and maintenance accounts.
"We stated very publicly that it's 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we're not going anywhere," Hegseth told members of the House appropriations defense subcommittee.
"The current cost estimate for the deployment is 134 million dollars, which is largely just the cost of travel, housing and food," said MacDonnell, special assistant to the secretary of defense who's currently performing the duties of the Pentagon's top financial officer.
Since scattered protests erupted after an immigration raid on Friday in the garment district of Los Angeles, the Trump administration has deployed 700 active-duty Marines and doubled the 2,000 National Guard troops to quell protests in the Los Angeles area over his government's efforts to deport more migrants. The action bypassed the authority of Governor Gavin Newsom of California and has triggered more protests that spread to other U.S. cities. ■
