In an extremely rare use of military force on domestic soil by the federal government, U.S. President Donald Trump deployed the California National Guard to assist local law enforcement with anti-ICE protests that had begun in the city of Los Angeles.
Late Saturday night of June 7th, Trump announced that he would be overriding the power of California Governor Gavin Newsom to take control of and deploy 2,000 California National Guard troops. This is an extremely unprecedented move, as a state’s National Guard is typically mobilised by the governor.
In the days leading up to the six-day resistance, at least 118 immigrants were arrested in raids across the city of Los Angeles. Street protests began breaking out on Friday 6th June as ICE agents raided workplaces in search of undocumented immigrants. Federal agents showed up in riot gear to break up the crowds protesting the ICE operations and more than 100 people were arrested, according to federal officials.
By Saturday, law enforcement faced hundreds of protestors, using rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. At around 6 pm, President Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard members to the city. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles said that the use of troops was “unnecessary” and “counterproductive.”
On Sunday morning, the streets were quiet. But protests were expected to continue for a third day, and National Guard troops were stationed at three different sites around the city in preparation. By the afternoon, protestors gathered at the Metropolitan Detention Centre, which the National Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Customs Enforcement officers attempted to disperse.
In the days following, scenes of armed officers occupied L.A. as federal immigration enforcement officers arrested individuals and clashed with street protestors. Protests remained largely subdued around the city, with a few violent encounters with law enforcement, including kicking and throwing rocks at police vehicles.
Crowds gathered outside of businesses that were expected to be raided, and in one particular case, outside a Home Depot in Paramount, protestors were met with tear gas and flash bangs.
According to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the National Guard troops are to stay in L.A. for 60 days. However, legal experts believe that the Trump administration’s actions might not hold up in court – as California plans to sue Trump over the order without the state’s consent.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom described Trump’s move as “unlawful,” and a decision that “seemed intentionally designed to inflame the situation.”
In an MSNBC interview on Sunday evening, Newsom said the lawsuit would “challenge Trump’s federalising of the California National Guard without the state’s consent.”
“Donald Trump has created the conditions you see on your TV tonight. He’s exacerbated the conditions.” He told MSNBC.
By deploying the National Guard, Trump has invoked a very specific provision of the US Code of Armed Services. Titled U.S.C. 12406, the provision lists three circumstances in which the president can deploy the national guard; if the U.S. is “invaded, or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation”; “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion” against the government; or “the president is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States”.
In his memorandum requesting the National Guard, President Trump said that the protests in Los Angeles “constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States”.
It is the first time since 1965 that a president has used federal powers to deploy the National Guard without a request from the state’s governor. The National Guard was last deployed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to protect civil rights demonstrators in Alabama.
The deployment seems to have only ramped up the L.A. protests, sparking more civil unrest. This could certainly be a provocative move by the Trump administration – tensions seemed only to rise after the deployment of the National Guard, and civil unrest increased, rather than quelled.
These ICE raids appear to be part of a new method of immigration crackdown the Trump administration is employing. Officials have said they will be increasingly focusing on workplaces, as part of the president’s aim to execute the “biggest deportation operation” in U.S. history. And despite the protests, ICE raids do not seem to be slowing down.
ICE agents have arrested more than 100,000 people since Trump took office – few of whom have serious criminal convictions. Internal data has shown that less than 10% of immigrants taken into ICE custody since October had serious criminal convictions.
The Trump administration has also ignored previous court rulings that specifically state certain individuals should not be deported due to threats to livelihood and have deported them anyway.
The deportation efforts have also included sending migrants to Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. military detention centre notorious for human rights abuses. Other migrants have been deported and sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador, called CECOT.
It is unclear how far the Trump administration will go to handle protests in the future. The president still has many options he could consider. He could, for example, invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy the full military. This Act was last used in the Los Angeles riots of 1992.
So far, the Pentagon has sent at least 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to defend federal agents and property in Los Angeles, which is already considered a legally dubious move that is likely to play out in court.
Legal scholars have expressed concern over what may follow after the events in Los Angeles. President Trump has already stretched the legal limits of using military forces upon domestic soil, constitutional law experts have said.
