WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday defended a US$134-million deployment of Marines and National Guard to Los Angeles, saying they would safeguard officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose roundups of alleged immigration offenders have triggered days of clashes.

"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," Hegseth told a hearing in Congress.

"Because we ought to be able to enforce immigration law in this country."

Some 700 Marines have arrived in the Los Angeles area under orders from President Donald Trump, who has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and other local leaders.

Some 2,100 of those troops are operating in Los Angeles, a US official said.

Bryn MacDonnell, who is performing comptroller duties at the Pentagon, told lawmakers the deployment's cost was about US$134 million and included travel, housing and food for troops.

Democratic lawmakers sought answers from Hegseth about the deployments and raised concerns about sending active-duty US troops to a mission that they said would be better performed by law enforcement officers.

"This is a deeply unfair position to put our Marines in. Their service should be honoured. It should not be exploited," said Representative Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, on a House Appropriations subcommittee.

McCollum said the Los Angeles protests did not mirror the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which was the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked to allow the US military to directly participate in civilian law enforcement.

Then-President George HW Bush deployed US forces to Los Angeles after California's governor requested military aid to suppress unrest following the trial of Los Angeles police officers...