Homeland Security seeks weapons, drones for LA immigration crackdown
Homeland Security seeks weapons, drones for LA immigration crackdown
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National Guard major general clarifies military's role in Los Angeles
National Guard Major General Scott Sherman outlined the role of military personnel in Los Angeles and said troops will not conduct arrests.
WASHINGTON —The Department of Homeland Security has asked the Pentagon for help in transporting weapons from Fort Benning in Georgia and another site in Wyoming to Los Angeles, where its immigration crackdown has become increasingly militarized.
The request came Monday after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered thousands of National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles over the objection of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump and Hegseth said the troops are needed to restore order, protect federal buildings and law enforcement officials arresting and deporting migrants in the United States illegally.
The request from Homeland Security, confirmed by a Defense official, also seeks 'drone surveillance support,' direction to troops on detaining or arresting 'lawbreakers,' and graduates from an organization like the Marines' School of Advanced Warfighting School for setting up a joint operation center.
It's unclear what type of weapons Homeland Security officials are seeking for their immigration crackdown in California. Also unclear: who would use them and who they would be used against.
Pentagon officials are reviewing the request, according to the official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, asked Hegseth if he would authorize drones and the use of 'military forces to detain or arrest American citizens?' Reed is a member of the Senate Defense Approprations subcommittee and the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
Hegseth did not answer directly, saying, 'Senator, every authorization we've provided, the National Guard, and the Marines in Los Angeles is under the authority of the president of the United States. Is lawful and constitutional.'
Troops enforcing laws
Active-duty troops are generally barred by federal law from participating in law enforcement operations, based on century's old tradition separating the military from domestic policing. There is an exception under the Insurrection Act that allows the president to use the military to put down an internal rebellion. National Guard troops have fewer restrictions.
News that Homeland Security officials want ammunition, drones and combat expertise follows another request it made of the Pentagon. That one seeks for the first time more than 20,000 National Guard troops for their 'support of interior immigration enforcement operations.' That could put Guardsmen far from the southern border -- where they have supported enforcement operations for years -- and thrust them into center of the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration in American cities.
More: Trump wants 20,000 troops to hunt, transport immigrants. Cost estimate: $3.6 billion
It's not a given that these requests will be granted in part or in full. Pentagon officials review the proposals and decide what the military can spare without compromising its mission.
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CNN
25 minutes ago
- CNN
DHS defends social media post calling for public to help ICE locate ‘all foreign invaders'
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security posted a striking graphic on its official X account. Uncle Sam, a symbol of American patriotism, is depicted nailing a poster to a wall that reads, 'Help your country… and yourself.' Written underneath the poster is the sentence, 'REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,' and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement hot line. The post — which DHS and the White House also posted to Instagram — prompted a flood of criticism, with some social media users comparing the post to authoritarian propaganda. On Thursday, at least two far-right X accounts claimed to have a hand in creating or disseminating the image before it was shared by DHS. A source within DHS told CNN the agency did not create the graphic. The DHS's Uncle Sam post has more than 81,000 likes and comes as immigration protests roil Los Angeles and other cities around the country, amid a deportation crackdown by President Donald Trump and DHS. And it marks an escalation in the agency's communication strategy, after weeks of using social media to attack or mock perceived enemies, promote ICE arrests and ridicule media reports it disagrees with. In another recent post, DHS responded to a comment appearing to question a popular X user's immigration status with a meme of a character with magnifying glasses. In May, DHS also said it was reviewing a reality TV show pitch where immigrants would compete for US citizenship, which an agency spokesperson said at the time was in the early stages of vetting and had not yet been approved or denied. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later told a Senate committee that she had 'no knowledge' of a reality show plan. The Uncle Sam graphic is reminiscent of media used previously by other governments to provoke fear, especially of immigrants, said Elisabeth Fondren, a journalism professor at St. John's University who has studied government propaganda and communications during war times. 'This poster fits within a long history of anti-immigrant rhetoric and, yes, state propaganda,' Fondren said. 'It evokes these remnants of Cold War, fake propaganda by the Russians, or, you know, authoritarian fear mongering messages … but what I think is so interesting is that this is a call to action in an environment where we're not in a war.' In defending the Uncle Sam post, the agency told CNN that it aligns with terminology used by other officials in the executive branch. DHS pointed CNN to a number of posts from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller using terms like 'invade' or 'invaders' when referring to undocumented immigrants. Asked for comment on this story, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CNN that criticisms of the post 'are fundamentally unserious and reflect the completely juvenile state of mainstream journalism. These reporters should get off social media and start focusing on the very real victims of illegal alien crime.' 'Every American citizen should support federal law enforcement in their just effort to deport criminal illegal alien invaders from our country,' McLaughlin said in a statement. 'During the Biden Administration our borders were opened to an invasion by the very worst from around the world. Now President Trump and Secretary Noem are reversing the destruction of our nation.' Trump's overall handling of immigration tends to earn higher approval ratings than his performance on other issues, but there is also evidence that Americans are less supportive of the way he's carrying out deportations. A CNN poll in April showed 52% of Americans said Trump has gone too far in deporting undocumented immigrants. DHS's provocative social media strategy has led to a rapidly growing audience. Engagement with the DHS account has grown significantly since Trump took office; it's second only to the White House in online engagement among US government accounts, the agency said. DHS communication officials have in recent days frequently posted videos from the LA protests that it says indicate the demonstrations are not peaceful and highlight law enforcement efforts to quell disorder. The demonstrations have impacted a relatively small area of the city, mostly in a section of downtown LA, where largely peaceful daytime protests have been giving way to volatile, occasionally violent scenes each night that have resulted in hundreds of arrests. The curfew zone is about one square mile, in a city that covers more than 450 square miles. The agency's posts come as random and anonymous users on platforms like X and TikTok have also shared old and sometimes completely fake content about the unrest, projecting an image of chaos, often in an apparent attempt to juice their own engagement. The agency has also posted names, photos and alleged charges of people it has arrested as justification for ICE's operations in Los Angeles. And on Wednesday, DHS shared a post on X that said: 'Liberals don't know things.' Many of the posts to the DHS account are memes or content created by outside sources. The image of the Uncle Sam poster was posted on X last Friday, around the time tensions in Los Angeles escalated, by podcaster C. Jay Engel, who describes himself as 'Christian nationalist adjacent' and has claimed that 'nations cannot survive replacement migration.' After DHS shared the Uncle Sam image, Engel posted: 'This image came from my account. NEVER STOP POSTING.' 'The question is, 'Is there room for like-minded Christians and patriots in Tennessee?'' the podcaster, Engel, said in an October podcast, in response to a listener's question. 'Yes, there's an imperative for like-minded Christians to gather and fight with us.' Although Engel circulated the image of the Uncle Sam poster, another X user claimed to have created the image. That pseudonymous X account, which has the words 'Wake Up White Man' in its biography, is full of nativist rhetoric and reposted another X user who declared: 'Whites deserve our own nations, like everyone else is allowed to have.' The pseudonymous account appears to have been the first to post the image. CNN has requested comment from Engel and attempted to reach the X user who claimed to have created the image. CNN's Samantha Delouya contributed reporting.
Los Angeles Times
31 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
The gift Trump never meant to give: the spotlight to Democratic adversary Gavin Newsom
SACRAMENTO — President Trump craves attention and will stoop to any depth to grab it — even pour gasoline on a kindling fire in Los Angeles. But this time he unwittingly provided priceless attention for an adversary. Because Trump needlessly deployed National Guard troops and — more ridiculous, a Marine battalion to L.A. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom was granted a prime-time speaking slot on national cable television to respond. 'We honor their service. We honor their bravery,' Newsom said of the troops. 'But we do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces. Not in L.A. Not in California. Not anywhere … . 'California may be first — but it clearly won't end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes. The moment we've feared has arrived.' I'm not sure the 'democracy is under assault' message has much traction, but keeping armed combat forces off our streets must be a salable pitch. Regardless, governors almost never get national TV time to deliver entire speeches, even as brief as Newsom's. You've practically got to be nominated for president. But the publicity-thirsty sitting president provided the cameras for California's governor. Newsom's strong address probably boosted his stock within the Democrat Party and revived dormant speculation about a 2028 presidential bid. No longer was the Democratic governor playing respectful nice guy and tempering criticism of the Republican president. Now he was standing up to the bully who loves to use California, Newsom and our progressive politics as a punching bag. Trump's red-state supporters love every swipe at this 'left coast' state. Newsom rose to the occasion, using his greatest asset: invaluable communication skills coupled with telegenic looks. He laid out his version of what happened to turn relatively peaceful protests against federal immigration raids into destructive street violence. And it's the correct version by objective accounts. On Saturday, Newsom said, federal immigration agents 'jumped out of an unmarked van' near a Home Depot parking lot and 'began grabbing people. A deliberate targeting of a heavily Latino suburb … . In response, everyday Angelenos' exercised their constitutional right to protest. Police were dispatched to keep the peace and mostly were successful, the governor continued. But then tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades were used — by federal agents, Newsom implied. Then Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops 'illegally and for no reason,' the governor asserted. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation … . Anxiety for families and friends ramped up. Protests started again … . Several dozen lawbreakers became violent and destructive.' Newsom warned: 'That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated. Full stop.' And hundreds have been arrested. But he emphasized: 'This situation was winding down and was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown. But that's not what Donald Trump wanted … . He chose theatrics over public safety.' In Trump's twisted view, if he hadn't sent in the National Guard, 'Los Angeles would be completely obliterated.' Never mind that the violence was confined to a few downtown blocks, a fraction of a city that spreads over 500 square miles. 'We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free and clean again,' the president promised. Veteran Republican strategist Mike Murphy had it right, telling CNN: 'He's lighting the fire as an arsonist, then claiming to be the fireman.' It reminded me of President Lyndon B. Johnson's manufactured Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 that Congress passed, enabling him to vastly escalate U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson reported a North Vietnamese attack on U.S. destroyers that many experts later concluded never happened. 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Hamilton Spectator
35 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Canada may lose access to Peace Garden airport
INTERNATIONAL PEACE GARDEN – David Pedersen drives his truck past border customs, turns up a grassy hill and stops at a ramshackle piece of tarmac on the edge of the country. Opening his car door, Pedersen drops his feet down on the warped pavement. There it is, he says: this piece of tarmac is Canada's contribution to the International Peace Garden Airport. The paved ground on Canada's side of the airport is smaller than the footprint of a community tennis court. It's not much to look at, but it allows Canada to use the North Dakota airstrip next door. Canadians can land at the airstrip, taxi the aircraft over the border to the pavement chunk in Canada, park, visit the gardens, clear customs, and take off again. But the airstrip and the taxiway, being just south of the border, are paid for by the United States. The future of this relationship, however, is in jeopardy. Canada will lose access to the airport in next eight to 15 years unless some department in the country partners with North Dakota on a rebuild. Due to federal regulations, North Dakota will need to reconstruct some of its tarmac and that will directly cut off access to Canada's slab of pavement. The Americans are looking for someone to deal with in Canada to build a new access, however they've failed to connect with a single agency willing to partner on the project. The regulation failure is that the taxiway that gives access to Canada is not at a 90-degree angle to the landing strip, according to Kyle Wanner, director of aeronautics for North Dakota, who added that Canada's pavement is too close to part of the airstrip. As a result, Canada's slab of pavement at the airport needs to move, or it won't be connected in the future. 'What will happen here is, during the short term, we'll still have access to Canadians on that taxiway moving forward,' Wanner said. 'But eventually that taxiway is going to need a reconstruct, and when it does, if Canada does not step up, or any organization, to fund any improvements on the Canadian side, the taxiway going to the Canadian apron will just be removed, and all access to Canada will cease.' Looking for ways to keep the airport connection going, North Dakota had engineers sketch a new design that would pay American dollars for a new taxiway. All that would be needed is Canadian authorities to commit to move the Canadian tarmac roughly 300 feet to the east, and connect to the taxiway at the new location. The problem is that nobody has been able to identify who in Canada is responsible to green light the project. And so while the United States prepares to reconstruct the airport, it has no confirmation that Canada will actually join in on the program and build its side of the border. 'Almost every group that we had reached out to didn't feel it was their problem, if you will, or there was something that they needed to further discuss. And so we kind of just kept going round in circles,' Wanner said. 'Does Canada want their apron or not? Do they want to continue this partnership or not? We just don't quite have an answer to that yet.' Judy Saxby, a former member of the peace gardens board of directors, said she has failed to find any answer to who is responsible for a proposed upgrade. She has been pursuing the answer of who owns the land in her spare time. 'I've been working at it for about three or four years now, and have not been able to find out who, in quotation marks, owns the little tarmac and who was responsible for building it in the first place,' Saxby told the Sun. 'There doesn't seem to be any documentation on it.' Saxby said that the problem has been not due to resistance, but that no person has been able to give a final answer. In an email in June, a spokesperson for the Province of Manitoba told the Sun that the land is on a road allowance, next to Turtle Mountain Provincial Park — both owned by the province. The spokesperson said that if any party wanted to build on the land, they would have to discuss it with the provincial government, as well as the International Boundary Commission. When the Sun asked the Manitoba NDP government if it would be interested in investing in the airport, a cabinet spokesperson said that the government does not have jurisdiction over any improvements to the Peace Garden airport. The spokesperson said that the airport is instead in the hands of the federal government. 'While the minister's office has received a proposal regarding a future expansion to the airport at the International Peace Gardens, the proposal was referred to the federal government who have sole jurisdiction over that particular airport,' wrote press secretary Caedmon Malowany on behalf of Minister of Municial and Northern Relations Glen Simard. In an email to the Sun, a departmental spokesperson for Transport Canada said that the decision over this land, such as to issue permits or approve land use applications, would fall to local governments. 'Land ownership and land use decisions are typically handled by municipal or provincial governments,' wrote the spokesperson to the Sun. 'We recommend contacting the Municipality of Boissevain–Morton, and or the Province of Manitoba.' The spokesperson said that should a project be proposed at the airport that would affect aviation safety or operations, the agency would review to ensure complaince with regulations. On his way home from the airport, Pedersen said the recent lack of upkeep at the International Peace Gardens Airport is a symbol showcasing that the Province of Manitoba overlooks airports and their significance. He said it's one of a trend across Manitoba. 'This is a symbol of a bigger, greater, problem,' Pedersen said. In the RM of Piney, a Canada-U.S. airport was discontinued in December of 2024 due to a lack of funding on the Canadian side, Pedersen said. He argued that it was a loss as the airport could have been used this year to assist wildfire efforts in the east of the province, giving surveillance planes somewhere out of which to operate. 'Especially in Manitoba, the provincial government is ignoring the contribution that the southern airports make,' he said. 'What I visualize is that we will lose more airports.' Pedersen promotes aviation in the south of the prairies, asserting that airports are crucial for emergency responses such as wildfires and medical evacuations, and that the province does not invest enough in the asset. Adam Penner, owner of Harv's Air Pilot Training near Winnipeg, said he agrees that there is a lack of funding for airports in Manitoba, and worries the Peace Garden airport will end similarly to the loss in the RM of Piney. 'It's the same kind of vibe,' Penner said. 'The Canadians can't decide who's responsible for it, and nobody does anything, it's a real shame.' He said the Peace Gardens airport is a beautiful place to visit. The gardens are nearby, as well as the value of being able to clear customs going north and south of the border. Penner uses the airstrip on business roughly 25 times a year, including for trips to Minot, N.D. The United States this summer is spending $3.5 million to rehabilitate all airport pavement on the U.S. side of the border. Workers cannot cross over to Canada due to jurisdictional issues — and North Dakota has been unable to find a partner in Canada to organize the project. 'I'm a bit embarrassed,' said Penner. 'The Americans can resurface the entire runway, and we can't even get our act together on a little ramp.' Wanner told the Sun that North Dakota is seriously interested in making something work between the two countries, and that there is still years to organize before the airport performs reconstruction that would cut off Canada's existing parking pad. 'I appreciate any positive publicity on the situation,' said Wanner when reached by the Sun. 'I would be happy if somebody in government would actually pay the phone call and say, 'Hey, let's figure this out.'' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . 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