SAN FRANCISCODespite a federal rule that forbids the president from deploying the military as a domestic police force, a deputy commanding general said Monday that military soldiers dispatched to help with immigration raids in Los Angeles were permitted to carry out certain law enforcement operations.
According to Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, federal agents conducting federal operations and federal property can be safeguarded by military personnel called upon to support domestic operations. If a commander on the ground felt dangerous, he said, they may take specific law enforcement measures, such establishing a security cordon outside government installations.
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At the beginning of a three-day trial, Sherman testified about whether the Trump administration’s deployment of U.S. Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to June protests over immigration raids violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. In general, the military is prohibited by law from engaging in civilian law enforcement. Trump has established militarized zones along the U.S.-Mexico border, pushing the limits of conventional military operations on American soil.
Even though the mayor has observed that crime is declining in the nation’s capital, Trump announced on Monday that he was deploying the National Guard throughout Washington, D.C., and taking over the city’s police force in an effort to lower crime.
The San Francisco trial may establish a precedent for Trump’s future use of the guard in California and other states.
After protests broke out on June 7 when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested people at several locations, the Trump administration federalized members of the California National Guard and sent them to the second-largest city in the United States, despite the protests of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and local leaders.
Approximately 700 Marines and 4,000 California National Guard soldiers were ordered to deploy to Los Angeles by the Department of Defense. According to the most recent statistics released by the Pentagon, 250 members of the National Guard are still in the service, although the majority of the personnel have since departed.
California is requesting that Judge Charles Breyer order the Trump administration to give the state back control of the remaining troops and to prevent any federal agent or officer from using military forces in California to carry out or aid in the execution of federal law or any civilian law enforcement duties.
Breyer gave Newsom an early win after concluding that the Trump administration had overreached itself and violated the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which establishes the balance of power between the federal and state governments.
The Trump administration filed an appeal right away, claiming that the president’s choices cannot be overturned by the courts. As the litigation progresses, it obtained a temporary suspension that keeps the California National Guard under federal jurisdiction.
Following their deployment, Marines primarily maintained watch around a federal building in downtown Los Angeles that houses a detention center at the center of protests, while the guard members joined federal immigration agents on raids in Los Angeles and at two marijuana cultivation locations in Ventura County.
Federal officials have been capturing illegal immigrants from Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, and farms since June. A few Americans have also been taken into custody.
Under a law that permits the president to call the National Guard into federal service in the event of an invasion, a rebellion or threat of a rebellion against the government, or in any other situation where the president is unable to carry out US laws, Trump federalized members of the California National Guard.
Breyer concluded that the demonstrations in Los Angeles were far from being a rebellion.
When a throng formed outside the federal facility to protest the June 7 immigration arrests, Ernesto Santacruz Jr., the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Los Angeles field office, stated in court records that the troops were required because local law enforcement was sluggish to react.
According to Santacruz, the National Guard and Marines’ presence has been crucial in defending federal staff and property against the violent rioters.
