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Business Standard
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Trial starts over Trump admin's deployment of National Guard to Los Angeles
Trump said he was deploying the National Guard across Washington & taking over the city's police dept in hopes of reducing crime, even as the mayor has noted crime is falling in the nation's capital AP San Francisco A deputy commanding general testified Monday that military forces called in to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles were allowed to take some law enforcement actions despite a federal law that prohibits the president from using the military as a domestic police force. Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman said military tapped to assist with domestic operations can protect federal property and federal agents in their mission carrying out federal operations. He said they could take certain law enforcement actions, such as setting up a security perimeter outside of federal facilities, if a commander on the ground felt unsafe. Sherman testified at the start of a three-day trial over whether President Donald Trump's administration violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act when it deployed National Guard soldiers and US Marines to Los Angeles following June protests over immigration raids. On Monday, Trump said he was deploying the National Guard across Washington, DC, and taking over the city's police department in the hopes of reducing crime, even as the mayor has noted that crime is falling in the nation's capital. The trial in San Francisco could set a precedent for how Trump can deploy the guard in the future in California or other states. The Trump administration federalised California National Guard members and sent them to the second-largest US city over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and city leaders after protests erupted on June 7 when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested people at multiple locations. The Department of Defense ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles. Most of the troops have since left, but 250 National Guard members remain, according to the latest figures provided by the Pentagon. California is asking Judge Charles Breyer to order the Trump administration to return control of the remaining troops to the state and to stop the federal government from using military troops in California to execute or assist in the execution of federal law or any civilian law enforcement functions by any federal agent or officer. Newsom won an early victory from Breyer, who found the Trump administration violated the Constitution's 10th Amendment, which defines power between federal and state governments, and exceeded its authority. The Trump administration immediately appealed, arguing that courts can't second-guess the president's decisions. It secured a temporary halt, allowing control of the California National Guard to stay in federal hands as the lawsuit unfolds. After their deployment, the guard members accompanied federal immigration officers on raids in Los Angeles and at two marijuana farm sites in Ventura County while Marines mostly stood guard around a federal building in downtown Los Angeles that includes a detention centre at the core of protests. Trump federalised members of the California National Guard under a law allows the president to call the National Guard into federal service when the country is invaded, when there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government, or when the president is otherwise unable to execute the laws of the United States. Breyer found the protests in Los Angeles fall far short of rebellion.' Since June, federal agents have rounded up immigrants without legal status to be in the US from Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, and farms. Some US citizens have also been detained. Ernesto Santacruz Jr., the field office director for the Department of Homeland Security in Los Angeles, said in court documents that the troops were needed because local law enforcement was slow to respond when a crowd gathered outside the federal building to protest the June 7 immigration arrests. The presence of the National Guard and Marines has played an essential role in protecting federal property and personnel from the violent mobs, Santacruz said.
South China Morning Post
10 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Trial starts over Trump's deployment of National Guard to Los Angeles during protests
A deputy commanding general testified on Monday that military forces called in to help with immigration raids in Los Angeles were allowed to take some police actions despite a federal law that prohibits the president from using the military as a domestic police force. Advertisement Major General Scott Sherman said military tapped to help with domestic operations can protect federal property and federal agents in their mission of carrying out federal operations. He said they could take certain police actions, such as setting up a security perimeter outside federal facilities, if a commander on the ground felt unsafe. Sherman testified at the start of a three-day trial over whether US President Donald Trump's administration violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act when it deployed National Guard soldiers and US Marines to Los Angeles following June protests over immigration raids. On Monday, Trump said he was deploying the National Guard across Washington and taking over the city's police department in the hopes of reducing crime, even as the mayor has noted that crime is falling in the nation's capital. Advertisement The trial in San Francisco could set a precedent for how Trump can deploy the guard in the future in California or other states.
USA Today
17-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump's LA National Guard orders draw comparisons to Jan. 6
Trump's LA National Guard orders draw comparisons to Jan. 6 Some legal experts and Democratic lawmakers question why Trump didn't deploy the Guard to quell the Jan. 6 Capitol assault but is doing so in LA. Show Caption Hide Caption 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. President Trump said the National Guard was needed to put down a 'form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congressional leaders had pleaded for National Guard troops during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters. A former Trump-appointed prosecutor told USA TODAY the 2020 Geroge Floyd riots are a more appropriate comparison with Trump's actions in Los Angeles. WASHINGTON – One group was considered a rampaging mob whose members bear-sprayed and beat police officers while breaking into the seat of American democracy to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The other was a more dispersed and uncoordinated group of violent agitators burning empty cars, looting and throwing rocks at police. In the first incident, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, then-President Donald Trump never called in the National Guard, despite pleas from local officials and some congressional lawmakers. They said troops were needed to prevent further violence from an angry mob that Trump himself had riled up to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. In the second case, which is still ongoing, Trump not only deployed the California National Guard over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, he also called in 700 active duty Marines to quell anti-ICE protests that erupted in Los Angeles over aggressive immigration raids. The contrast between Trump's actions in 2021, when the U.S. Capitol was overrun by a violent mob, and this month in Los Angeles is proof, his critics say, the president is using the U.S. military for political purposes. But some supporters of the president say the more appropriate comparison isn't with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but the riots and disturbances that rocked American cities in the summer of 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. The Floyd protests showed "you've got to put out small fires before they turn into forest fires,' Jay Town, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during Trump's first administration, told USA TODAY. Trump said the troops were needed in Los Angeles to put down a 'form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." The protests in Los Angeles are seen as more tepid compared to the Jan. 6 riots in terms of constituting a rebellion or threat to the federal government, according to Newsom, Democratic lawmakers, and legal experts. They accuse Trump − who was impeached and criminally indicted over Jan. 6, though the charges were dropped after his reelection − of deploying soldiers to serve his own political ends. "There was not plausibly a rebellion in Los Angeles, under any reasonable interpretation of the term," said Chris Mirasola, a law professor at the University of Houston and a former Department of Defense legal advisor. Critics saw a cracked mirror image of Jan. 6 in Trump's mobilization of the National Guard in Los Angeles. 'This is a reverse of Jan. 6, where Trump allowed his most violent supporters to attack the Capitol on his behalf," Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., told USA TODAY, "and here he is sending in federal troops to provoke his opponents to attack them.' "In both instances, his aim is chaos,' Swalwell said. What happened on Jan. 6, 2021? Four people died during the Jan. 6 assault on Congress and five police officers died in its aftermath − one from a stroke the following day and four by suicide. About 140 other law enforcement officers were injured. More than 1,575 people were charged in connection with Jan. 6, ranging from misdemeanors such as trespassing to felonies such as assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. At least 600 were charged with the felony of assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the Police Executive Research Forum. Damages for Jan. 6 surpassed $2.7 billion, according to an investigation by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. How much damage in LA? In the current case, at least nine LAPD officers and an unknown number of protesters have been hurt, with most sustaining minor injuries. The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested more than 500 people in eight days of protests, the majority of them on minor charges such as failure to disperse or not obeying a nighttime curfew. Two were charged with throwing firebombs, authorities said on June 11. Though the extent of damage from the current LA protests are unknown, it is far less significant than on Jan. 6, Democratic lawmakers and city and state officials say. What's Trump's response? Trump and other administration officials repeatedly have said there's no comparison between Jan. 6 and the Los Angeles violence, and that California and LA officials forced the President's hand by failing to quell the growing protests. 'Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion,' Trump told Army soldiers in a June 10 speech at Fort Bragg, N.C. 'As commander in chief, I will not let that happen.' Trump didn't make any such pronouncements four years ago as a stunned nation watched the Capitol attack unfold, with organized groups including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia taking leading roles. In 2021, Trump spent 187 minutes watching the Capitol assault on TV, while mobs ransacked Congressional offices and hunted for Democratic lawmakers and even his own vice president, Mike Pence, according to a House committee investigating the attack. Hours later, only after the crowd began dispersing, Trump posted a video on social media at 4:17 p.m.: 'Go home. We love you, you're very special.' It wasn't until 5:20 p.m. on Jan. 6 that the first National Guard troops arrived at the Capitol, while police secured the complex. 'In a bipartisan way, on Jan. 6 − with violence against the Constitution, against the Congress and against the United States Capitol − we begged the president of the United States to send in the National Guard,' former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., told reporters. 'He would not do it.' 'And yet, in a contra-constitutional way, he has sent the National Guard into California,' Pelosi said on June 10. 'Something is very wrong with this picture." On June 13, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted a federal judge's order blocking Trump's Guard mobilization in Los Angeles. 'Small fires' vs 'forest fires' Supporters of Trump's National Guard call-out in California point to a different set of disturbances to justify his actions. Jay Town, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2017 to a 2020 and a former Marine, described a more complex set of circumstances than Pelosi. He cited statements by Steven Sund, the U.S. Capitol Police chief at the time, that he begged for National Guard assistance on Jan. 6 but that it was congressional officials who reported to Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who delayed approval. More: Amid LA deployment, Hegseth falsely attacks Tim Walz over 2020 George Floyd riots Town said the appropriate comparison isn't with Jan. 6, but the National Guard deployments in 2020 during riots following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. 'What we learned in 2020, as a guy who was in office then, is that you've got to put out small fires before they turn into forest fires,' Town told USA TODAY. "President Trump is not going to let what happened under the failed local and state leadership in Minneapolis and Seattle and so many other places happen again.' Trump's order in Los Angeles On his first day back in office in 2025, Trump pardoned all but 14 of the approximately 1,270 convicted Jan. 6 rioters. He and Cabinet members including Attorney General Pam Bondi say they will prosecute anyone who even touches a law enforcement official in Los Angeles to the fullest extent of the law. Asked if that was hypocritical in light of Trump's Jan. 6 pardons, Bondi said, "Well, this is very different." "These are people out there hurting people in California right now,' Bondi said in an on-camera gaggle with reporters at the White House. 'This is ongoing." Newsom, who is suing Trump over the Marines and Guardsmen in Los Angeles, disagreed. "Trump, he's not opposed to lawlessness and violence, as long as it serves him,' Newsom said. 'What more evidence do we need than Jan. 6?"
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marines in LA as ‘No Kings' protest looms
LOS ANGELES - Roughly 200 U.S. Marines moved into Los Angeles Friday to protect federal buildings amid continuing protests over ongoing immigration raids. What we know Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51, said the deployment of Marines in the LA area will free up National Guard troops, who have been primarily protecting federal property over the past week. With the help of the Marines, National Guard troops will now serve a more protective role for federal agents conducting enforcement operations in the field. "I would like to emphasize that the soldiers will not participate in law enforcement activities," Sherman told reporters during a morning briefing. "Rather, they'll be focused on protecting federal law enforcement personnel." Sherman said some National Guard troops have already been doing protective work for federal agents conducting immigration enforcement activities, but they have not engaged in any police-type work or made any arrests or detentions. RELATED:National Guard in LA: Why is Newsom suing the Trump administration? Marines began arriving around midday Friday at the federal building in West Los Angeles. By mid-afternoon, more than a dozen were stationed outside the 17-story Wilshire Federal Building, replacing some members of the National Guard at various entrances. They mostly appeared to be checking tickets from members of the public who were there to renew their passports. Sherman said the U.S. Marine Corps is responsible for guarding U.S. embassies overseas so they are well-trained on how to defend a federal building. Their arrival comes a day ahead of the planned 'No Kings' protests which are scheduled to take place in Los Angeles and across the nation. The No Kings Day of Defiance is expected to be the largest single-day mobilization since Trump returned to office, organizers said. The protest coincides with a planned military parade in Washington, D.C. that celebrates the Army's 250th birthday and President Trump's 79th birthday. "From city blocks to small towns, from courthouse steps to community parks, we're taking action to reject authoritarianism — and show the world what democracy really looks like," organizers said on the official No Kings website. SUGGESTED:' No Kings' anti-Trump protests planned in California: Here's when and where List: 'No Kings' anti-Trump protest locations in LA, Southern California The protests are in affiliation with the 50501 movement, a national movement made up of everyday Americans who stand for democracy and against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. The name 50501 stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement. Ahead of Saturday's events, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna and CHP Deputy Commissioner Ezery Beauchamp held a joint news conference at LAPD headquarters on Friday to discuss law-enforcement preparations aimed at keeping the numerous demonstrations peaceful. Their message was clear: Law enforcement is fully prepared and will arrest anyone who commits a crime or incites violence. The Source Information for this story came from Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman and previous FOX 11 reports. City News Service contributed.
United News of India
14-06-2025
- Politics
- United News of India
U.S. marines move into Los Angeles amid protests over immigration raids
Los Angeles, June 14 (UNI) About 200 U.S. marines have been deployed to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, to protect a federal building there, the military said on Friday, after a week of protests over the current administration's immigration raids in the city. U.S. Army Major General Scott Sherman, commander of the Task Force 51, which includes more than 4,000 California Army National Guard soldiers and about 700 marines, said at a press briefing that those marines had completed civil disturbance training. But Sherman said the marines will not participate in law enforcement activities. Some of the marines were seen standing guard outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles area. The 17-story federal building on Wilshire Boulevard is home to many of Los Angeles' federal offices, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Los Angeles field office. U.S. President Donald Trump has made decisions to dispatch over 4,000 National Guard members and about 700 active-duty marines to the Los Angeles area despite the objection of California Governor Gavin Newsom and other local officials. About 2,800 service members, including 2,100 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines, were deployed to the greater Los Angeles area, said U.S. Northern Command in a news release on Wednesday, adding that the Marines had completed required training and would be serving alongside National Guard soldiers within the next 48 hours. The Marines were reportedly undergoing civil disturbance training at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in Orange County, located south of Los Angeles. The Trump administration won a swift legal victory on Thursday night when a federal appeals court blocked a lower court's order issued just hours earlier that would have returned 4,000 California National Guard troops to state control, allowing the military deployment in Los Angeles to continue. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay just hours after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Thursday evening that Trump had illegally federalized California's National Guard and violated the Constitution. The appellate court's new order not only allows the National Guard troops to continue operating under federal command but also indicates that the legal battle between Washington and the Golden State will continue. The dramatic legal reversal capped a day of courtroom confrontation between the Trump administration and California over the unprecedented federal takeover of state military forces. Hundreds of people have been arrested in Southern California since the protests over federal immigration enforcement started a week ago, with more protests planned in the coming weekend across the region and the country. UNI XINHUA ARN
