Latest news with #PosseComitatusAct
The Hill
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
WATCH: Thousands Of US Troops Patrol Southern Border After Trump Emergency Declaration
(AP) U.S. troops are sharing command stations and vehicles with civilian immigration authorities at the southern US border under an emergency declaration from President Donald Trump. Troop deployments at the border have tripled to 7,600 and include every branch of the military — even as the number of attempted illegal crossings plummet and Trump has authorized funding for an additional 3,000 Border Patrol agents, offering $10,000 signing and retention bonuses. The military mission is guided from a new command center at a remote Army intelligence training base alongside southern Arizona's Huachuca Mountains. There, a community hall has been transformed into a bustling war room of battalion commanders and staff with digital maps pinpointing military camps and movements along the nearly 2,000-mile border. Until now border enforcement had been the domain of civilian law enforcement, with the military only intermittently stepping in. But in April, large swaths of border were designated militarized zones, empowering U.S. troops to apprehend immigrants and others accused of trespassing on Army, Air Force or Navy bases, and authorizing additional criminal charges that can mean prison time. The two-star general leading the mission says troops are being untethered from maintenance and warehouse tasks to work closely with U.S. Border Patrol agents in high-traffic areas for illegal crossings — and to deploy rapidly to remote, unguarded terrain. At Nogales, Army scouts patrolled the border in full battle gear — helmet, M5 service rifle, bullet-resistant vest — with the right to use deadly force if attacked under standing military rules integrated into the border mission. Underfoot, smugglers for decades routinely attempted to tunnel into stormwater drains to ferry contraband into the U.S. One command post oversees an armada of 117 armored Stryker vehicles, more than 35 helicopters and a half-dozen long-distance drones that can survey the border day and night with sensors to pinpoint people wandering the desert. Marine Corps engineers are adding concertina wire to slow crossings, as the Trump administration reboots border wall construction. The Trump administration is using the military broadly to boost its immigration operations, from guarding federal buildings in Los Angeles against protests over ICE detentions, to assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida to plans to hold detained immigrants on military bases in New Jersey, Indiana and Texas. The militarized zones at the border sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the military from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil. AP Video shot by Eugene Garcia
The Intercept
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Intercept
The Pentagon Won't Track Troops Deployed on U.S. Soil. So We Will.
In his first six months in office, President Donald Trump has overseen the deployment of nearly 20,000 federal troops on American soil, including personnel from the National Guard, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines, according to the Pentagon's public statements. But the true number of troops deployed may be markedly higher. When asked directly, the Army said it has no running tally of how many troops have been deployed. These federal forces have been operating in at least five states — Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas — with more deployments on the horizon, all in service of the Trump administration's anti-immigrant agenda. Experts say military involvement in domestic anti-immigrant operations undermines American democracy and has nudged the United States closer to a genuine police state. 'If the president can use the military as a domestic police force entirely under his control, it can be used as a tool of tyranny and oppression.' 'This level of involvement of the military in civilian law enforcement in the interior of the country is unprecedented — and really dangerous,' said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center's liberty and national security program, who told The Intercept that recent deployments violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a bedrock 19th-century law seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America which bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement. She added: 'If the president can use the military as a domestic police force entirely under his control, it can be used as a tool of tyranny and oppression. We've seen it all around the world and throughout history.' The norms surrounding the use of military force within U.S. borders are eroding, and the executive branch is operating with free rein, emboldened by a legislature and judiciary seemingly uninterested in curtailing its actions. These soldiers have been sent to patrol the border, put down popular protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, participate in ICE raids, and assist in immigration enforcement missions from coast to coast. Here, to the extent of what is known so far, is what they've been up to. President Donald Trump began the further militarization of America on his first day back in office. 'Our southern border is overrun by cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics,' Trump announced on January 20, directing the military to 'assist the Department of Homeland Security in obtaining full operational control of the southern border.' Despite the fact that Trump's fearmongering was his typical hyperbole, more than 10,000 troops are deploying or have deployed to the southern border, according to U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, which oversees U.S. military activity from Mexico's southern border up to the North Pole. Under the direction of NORTHCOM, military personnel — including soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Carson in Colorado, one of the Army's most storied combat units — have deployed under the moniker Joint Task Force-Southern Border, or JTF-SB, since March, bolstering approximately 2,500 service members who were already supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection's border security mission. One-third of the U.S. border is now completely militarized due to the creation of four new national defense areas, or NDAs: sprawling extensions of U.S. military bases patrolled by troops who can detain immigrants until they can be handed over to Border Patrol agents. The Air Force is responsible for the recently created South Texas NDA, which encompasses federal property along 250 miles of the Rio Grande River. The Navy controls the Yuma NDA, which extends along 140 miles of federal property on the U.S.–Mexico border near the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in Arizona. The New Mexico NDA, created in April, spans approximately 170 miles of noncontiguous land along that state's border, serving as an extension of the Army's Fort Huachuca. Another NDA was created in May in West Texas and covers approximately 63 miles of noncontiguous land between El Paso and Fort Hancock, serving as an extension of the Army's Fort Bliss. Around 8,500 military personnel were assigned to JTF-SB to 'enhance US Customs and Border Patrol's capacity to identify, track and disrupt threats to border security,' chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said at the beginning of the month. JTF-SB says the current number of personnel deploys stands at 7,600, while NORTHCOM says the current number of federal troops providing border security is closer to 8,600. No one actually knows how many troops have been involved in border operations this year. 'We do not maintain a running total of Service Members who have served with JTF-SB since its inception, so the total number since March is currently unavailable,' Kent Redmond, a spokesperson for JTF-Southern Border told The Intercept. NORTHCOM didn't have a number on hand either. But more than 10 Task Forces have assisted JTF-SB, including Task Force Mountain Warrior, consisting of soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team; Task Force Castle, made up of soldiers from the 41st Engineer Battalion; 500 Marines and Navy personnel from Task Force Sapper; and 500 Marines and sailors from Task Force Forge. The latter replaced the Task Force Sapper troops and are now conducting patrols in the Yuma NDA. Since March alone, Parnell said, the JTF-SB has conducted more than 3,500 patrols, including more than 150 'trilateral' patrols with CBP and the Mexican military. There have, however, been only seven temporary detentions by troops within the National Defense Areas, according to Redmond. He said the seven persons were 'detained in place' by JTF-SB personnel for less than 10 minutes. 'The amount being spent to have the world's best fighting force walk around the border to pick up a handful of people is shocking.' 'Setting aside the threats to democracy and liberty, the sheer waste is staggering. The amount being spent to have the world's best fighting force walk around the border to pick up a handful of people is shocking,' said Goitein, who also noted that the detentions violated the Posse Comitatus Act. 'They may think if they detain people for only 10 minutes it's not a violation, but that's not how the law works,' Goitein explained. 'They may also say that the Posse Comitatus Act simply doesn't apply when the purpose is to protect a military base, but here it's clear that the primary purpose is enforcement of immigration law.' The southern border increasingly resembles the site of one of America's post-9/11 foreign occupations, as military personnel employ weapons and gear originally intended for foreign battlefields. Troops have used Stryker armored vehicles (for the first time on the border since 2012), Black Hawk helicopters, Humvees, hulking up-armored MRAPs, long range advanced scout surveillance systems (which the Army uses for 'line of sight target acquisition'), Black Hornet microdrones, tethered aerostats (surveillance balloons with high-powered cameras), command launch units (which provide thermal imaging), AN/TPQ-53 Quick Reaction Capability Radar (used in the event of attack by rockets and mortars), AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar systems (used to counter low-flying aircraft and drones), while conducting, ground patrols, mounted patrols in armored vehicles, helicopter aerial 'deterrence' patrols, and even 'air assaults.' The military has even dispatched Navy warships offshore to secure the border. After battling Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden earlier this year, for example, the USS Stockdale — a guided-missile destroyer — was deployed to support NORTHCOM's southern border operations alongside the Coast Guard on the U.S.–Mexico maritime border. That ship took over for the USS Spruance, another guided-missile destroyer drafted into anti-immigrant operations. 'We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border,' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on X in March. Since then, the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly announced historically low apprehensions along the southern border. 'The numbers don't lie — under President Trump's leadership, DHS and CBP have shattered records and delivered the most secure border in American history,' said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this month. And as early as April, DHS announced, 'Customs and Border Protection now has total control of the border.' Despite all of this, as well as the huge influx of troops and weapons of war deployed at the border, when The Intercept inquired whether full operational control of the border had been achieved and 'if not, why not?' DHS demurred. A senior DHS official, who offered comments on the condition of anonymity for no discernible reason, provided rote talking points and praise of Trump and Noem. The official added that the department was 'grateful' for JTF-SB's 'support.' More than 5,000 troops have also been deployed to Los Angeles since early June. The National Guard soldiers and Marines operating in Southern California — under the command of the Army's Task Force 51 — were sent to 'protect the safety and security of federal functions, personnel, and property.' In practice, this has mostly meant guarding federal buildings across LA from protests against the ongoing ICE raids sweeping the city. Since Trump called up the troops on June 7, they have carried out exactly one temporary detainment, a Task Force 51 spokesperson told The Intercept. Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, described this deployment as Task Force 51 supporting 'more than 170 missions in over 130 separate locations from nine federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Marshal Service, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security' in a briefing in early July. Task Force 51 failed to provide any other metrics regarding troops' involvement in raids, arrests, or street patrols in response to questions by The Intercept. Troops were sent to LA over the objections of local officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In addition to guarding federal buildings, troops have also recently participated in raids alongside camouflage-clad ICE agents. An assault on MacArthur Park, a recreational hub in one of LA's most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods on July 7, for example, included 90 armed U.S. troops and 17 military Humvees. Its main accomplishment was rousting a summer day camp for children. No arrests were made. California National Guard soldiers also backed ICE raids on state-licensed marijuana nurseries this month. The troops took part in the military-style assaults on two locations, one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 90 miles northwest of LA and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 50 miles from LA. ICE detained more than 200 people, including U.S. citizens, during the joint operations. One man, Jaime Alanís Garcia, died while trying to flee from the raid in Camarillo. On July 1, Task Force 51 announced that it would release approximately 150 members of the California National Guard from their LA duty. That same day, NORTHCOM said that the Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment were leaving Los Angeles but would be replaced by the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. Last Tuesday, Trump administration officials announced that about 2,000 more National Guard members deployed to LA would be released from service. On Monday, the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing the 700 active-duty Marines from Los Angeles. The withdrawals followed repeated reporting by The Intercept highlighting the failure of the troops to do much of substance. All told, since the deployments began, around 5,500 troops have been sent to southern California, according to Becky Farmer, a NORTHCOM spokesperson. On the other side of the country, Marines are being hustled to Florida to aid the administration's anti-immigrant agenda. Responding to a DHS request, Hegseth approved a mobilization of up to 700 active, National Guard, and Reserve forces. The first contingent — approximately 200 Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 272, Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina — have been mobilized to support ICE's 'interior immigration enforcement mission' in Florida, NORTHCOM announced earlier this month. The command noted that they were only the 'first wave' of ICE assistance. NORTHCOM says additional forces will be deployed to Louisiana and Texas. Hundreds more Guardsmen are expected to be sent to assist in more than a half dozen other states, including Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. Some of these same states are also using their own National Guard members in their own anti-immigrant operations. More than 4,200 Texas National Guard soldiers and airmen on state duty are engaged in Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative launched by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021. Texas's forces were bolstered, until April, by members of the Indiana National Guard. Nearly 70 Florida National Guard members are also on state duty, conducting base camp security at the remote migrant detention center in the state's Everglades known as 'Alligator Alcatraz.' While Trump insisted that the swamp gulag was reserved for 'deranged psychopaths' and 'some of the most vicious people on the planet,' it was revealed that hundreds of detainees had committed no offense other than civil immigration violations. 'Governors should be doing everything in their power to avoid their state's national guard troops being pulled into this lawless, authoritarian power grab, not spending precious resources to help it along,' Sara Haghdoosti, the executive director of Win Without War, told The Intercept. The Trump administration's use of military forces in its anti-immigrant crusade has been criticized as a publicity stunt and an authoritarian power play. The directive signed by Trump calling up the California National Guard, for example, cited '10 U.S.C. 12406,' a provision within Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services that allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' There was, however, no rebellion. Vice President JD Vance even recently vacationed at Disneyland in Anaheim, about 25 miles from LA. Still, experts say that the stunt deployments represent a clear danger to American democracy by violating the Posse Comitatus Act; normalizing the use of the military in civilian law enforcement activities; and further transforming the armed forces into a tool of domestic oppression by aiding ICE, which increasingly operates as a masked, secret police force. 'ICE is running a nationwide campaign of violent, racist kidnappings, and Hegseth's Pentagon is bending over backward to make the military into ICE's chief sidekicks,' said Haghdoosti. 'Troops abetting violence against their own neighbors isn't tenable for our communities, our democracy, or the troops themselves.'
Fox News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Pentagon scaling down National Guard deployment to LA
The Pentagon is releasing 2,000 National Guard troops from their federal mission to Los Angeles. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday night. "As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission." The Trump administration had federalized roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles in early June to quell anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots and protests. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass categorized the rescission of about half of the National Guard troops deployed to the city as a "retreat." "This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today's retreat," the Democratic mayor claimed in a statement, adding, "We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country." Bass said in a press conference that the National Guard's primary mission has been to guard two buildings that "frankly didn't need to be guarded." "I am hoping that this experiment with the lives of people ends here," she said. California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration for deploying California National Guard troops despite his opposition. He argued that the National Guard troops were likely violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil. Newsom won an early victory in the case after a federal judge ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trump's authority. An appeals court tossed that order, and control of the troops remained with the federal government. The federal court is set to hear arguments next month on whether the troops are violating the Posse Comitatus Act. The deployment of National Guard troops was for 60 days, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the discretion to shorten or extend it "to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground," the Trump administration's lawyers wrote in a June 23 filing in the legal case. Following the Pentagon's decision Tuesday, Newsom said in a statement that the National Guard's deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work "to serve as political pawns for the President." He added that the remaining troops "continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities." "We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now," he said. In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to Los Angeles asked Hegseth for 200 Guardsmen to be returned to wildfire-fighting duty. Newsom had warned the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season. The end of the deployment comes a week after Bass was blasted on social media for interrupting federal authorities and National Guard troops during an operation at MacArthur Park, a known hotbed for homelessness and crime. The mayor claimed children were playing in the park when the "MILITARY comes through" and demanded to speak to ICE leadership at the scene. No arrests were reported, and online users lamented that Bass cared more for illegal aliens than Los Angeles fire victims. On Tuesday afternoon, there was no visible military presence outside the federal complex downtown that had been the center of early protests and where National Guard troops first stood guard before the Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings, according to the Associated Press. Hundreds of soldiers have been accompanying agents on immigration operations.
Los Angeles Times
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Stunts in L.A. show Democratic states and cities that Trump's forces can invade anytime
Early this month, the U.S. military and masked federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and from Customs and Border Protection invaded a park near downtown Los Angeles — ironically, a park named after Gen. Douglas MacArthur. They came ready for battle, dressed in tactical gear and camouflage, with some arriving on horseback, while others rolled in on armored vehicles or patrolled above in Black Hawk helicopters. Although the invasion force failed to capture anyone, it did succeed in liberating the park from a group of children participating in a summer camp. The MacArthur Park operation sounds like a scene from 'South Park,' but it really did happen — and its implications are terrifying. As Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol agent in charge, said to Fox News: 'Better get used to us now, 'cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles.' And President Trump is sending the same message to every Democratic governor and mayor in America who dares oppose him. He will send heavily armed federal forces wherever he wants, whenever he wants and for any reason. The United States stands at the threshold of an authoritarian breakthrough, and Congress and the courts have given Trump a lot of tools. He's learned from Jan. 6, 2021, that he needs tight control over the 'guys with the guns,' as retired Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley put it. And that's what he got when Congress dutifully confirmed Trump loyalists to lead all of the 'power ministries' — the military, the FBI and the Department of Justice, the rest of the intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security. As commander in chief, the president can deploy troops and, under Title 10, he can also put National Guard troops under his command — even against the wishes of local officials. Gov. Gavin Newsom challenged the legality of Trump's exercise of this authority in Los Angeles last month, and we will see what the courts say — but based on its initial rulings, the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit appears likely to defer to the president. Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the troops cannot currently enforce laws, but Trump could change that by invoking the Insurrection Act, and we have to assume that the current Supreme Court would defer to him on that as well, following long-standing precedents saying the president's power under the act is 'conclusive.' Trump could send the military into other cities, but the most dangerous weapon in his authoritarian arsenal might be the newly empowered Department of Homeland Security, which has been given $170 billion by Congress to triple the size of ICE and double its detention capacity. No doubt, this will put Trump's 'mass deportation' into overdrive, but this is not just about immigration. Remember Portland in 2020, when Trump sent Border Patrol agents into the city? Against the wishes of the Oregon governor and the Portland mayor, the president deployed agents to protect federal buildings and suppress unrest after the killing of George Floyd. Under the Homeland Security Act, the secretary can designate any employee of the department to assist the Federal Protective Service in safeguarding government property and carrying out 'such other activities for the promotion of homeland security as the Secretary may prescribe.' Under that law, DHS officers can also make arrests, on and off of federal property, for 'any offense against the United States.' This is why, in 2020, Border Patrol agents — dressed like soldiers and equipped with M-4 semi-automatic rifles — were able to rove around Portland in unmarked black SUVs and arrest people off the streets anywhere in the city. Trump could do this again anywhere in the country, and with the billions Congress has given to immigration and border agencies, DHS could assemble and deploy a formidable federal paramilitary force wherever and whenever Trump wishes. Of course, under the 4th Amendment, officers need to have at least reasonable suspicion based on specific, articulable facts before they can stop and question someone, and probable cause before they arrest. And on Friday, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order blocking ICE and Customs and Border Protection from making such stops without reasonable suspicion, and further holding that this could not be based on apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; presence at a particular location, such as a Home Depot parking lot; or the type of work a person does. This ruling could end up providing an important constitutional restraint on these agencies, but we shall see. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling. However, this litigation proceeds, it is important to note that the DHS agencies are not like the FBI, with its buttoned-down, by-the-book culture drilled into it historically and in response to the revelations of J. Edgar Hoover's abuses of power. DHS and its agencies have no such baggage, and they clearly have been pushing the envelope in Los Angeles — sometimes brutally — over the last month. And even if Frimpong's ruling stands up on appeal, ICE and Customs and Border Protection will no doubt adapt by training their officers to articulate other justifications for stopping people on the street or in workplaces. Ultimately, these agencies are used to operating near the border, where, in the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's words, the federal government's power is 'at its zenith,' and where there are far fewer constitutional constraints on their actions. These are the tools at Trump's disposal — and as DHS rushes to hire thousands of agents and build the detention facilities Congress just paid for, these tools will only become more formidable. And one should anticipate that Trump will want to deploy the DHS paramilitary forces to 'protect' the 2026 or 2028 elections, alongside federal troops, in the same way they worked together to capture MacArthur Park. A fanciful, dystopian scenario? Maybe, but who or what would stop it from happening? Congress does not seem willing to stand up to the president — and while individual federal judges might, the Supreme Court seems more likely to defer to him, especially on issues concerning national security or immigration. So, in the words of Bruce Springsteen, 'the last check on power, after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people, you and me.' Suit up. Seth Stodder served in the Obama administration as assistant secretary of Homeland Security for borders, immigration and trade and previously as assistant secretary for threat prevention and security. He teaches national security and counterterrorism law at USC Law School.
Time of India
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Trump eases immigration crackdown? 2,000 National Guard troops to leave Los Angeles; Newsom calls them ‘political pawns of president'
4000 guards had been stationed in Los Angeles The Pentagon has ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to leave Los Angeles, scaling down a deployment that began in response to protests against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The decision to withdraw nearly half of the soldiers stationed in the city was made on Tuesday amid ongoing tensions. About 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines had been stationed across LA since early June. Officials did not provide a clear reason for the sudden move, but it appeared to be a step back from the heavy military presence that had previously drawn criticism from LA mayor Karen Bass and California governor Gavin Newsom. The Trump administration's decision to deploy troops had sparked widespread protests. On June 8, demonstrators flooded city streets, blocked a major freeway, and clashed with police using rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash bangs. In the chaos, several Waymo driverless cars were set on fire. The unrest continued the following day, as officers pushed protesters using flash bangs and projectiles. Bystanders, including restaurant workers, rushed to get out of the way. In response, mayor Karen Bass imposed a week-long curfew. By Tuesday afternoon, there was no sign of military presence at the downtown federal complex, which had been the centre of early protests. National Guard troops had first secured the area before Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings. Some soldiers had also helped with immigration operations in the city. Newsom had strongly opposed the deployment and sued the federal government, arguing it violated both state rights and the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the military from performing law enforcement duties on American soil. Although a federal judge first ruled in favour of Newsom, a higher court later overturned the decision, letting the federal government keep control of the Guard. The court is expected to hear more arguments next month. In a statement following the Pentagon's decision, Newsom criticised the ongoing mission. 'The National Guard's deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President,' he said. He added, 'We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theatre and send everyone home now.' The withdrawal of troops follows last week's heavily criticised federal operation at MacArthur Park, where troops and agents arrived with guns and horses. Department of homeland security (DHS) declined to explain the mission or confirm any arrests, with locals accusing the move of being a show of intimidation.
