President Donald Trump’s order to deploy 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell anti-immigration enforcement protests — without the consent of Gov. Gavin Newsom — is an extraordinary move, according to experts in national security and presidential powers.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched operations in LA last week, stretching into the weekend, arresting more than 100 people. Demonstrators protested the raids, clashing with police in the city and surrounding areas. Law enforcement has responded by shooting nonlethal, but dangerous, rubber bullets and pepper spray at protesters and journalists.
It is the first time since 1965 that a president called National Guard troops to respond to civil unrest without a governor’s official request for assistance, according to Elizabeth Goitein, the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program.
She called such a move unprecedented.
“The conditions that would normally be present, and that should be present, for the president to deploy the military are simply not here,” she said.
Trump’s presidential memoranda argued that the National Guard deployment was necessary and defendable as these “violent protests threaten the security of and significant damage to Federal immigration detention facilities and other Federal property” and that the demonstrations “constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
