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How common are National Guard deployments over unrest? A look at past presidents' actions
How common are National Guard deployments over unrest? A look at past presidents' actions
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Trump sends National Guard to LA as ICE protests escalate
Crowds converged in downtown L.A. after National Guard troops arrived to quell any protests opposing President Trump's immigration policies.
After more than 30 years since the 1992 Los Angeles Rodney King riots, an order from the president has once again ushered in hundreds of National Guard troops to California's largest city, brought in to respond to multi-day demonstrations over federal immigration raids.
The protests began Friday, June 6 after Homeland Security officials detained dozens of people across multiple locations in a city where nearly half of residents are Hispanic or Latino. By that evening, more than 100 people gathered at a downtown Los Angeles federal detention center where some immigrants had been held, and demonstrations continued through Saturday and into Sunday, June 8, reaching nearby neighborhoods of Paramount and Compton.
National Guard troops, deployed by President Donald Trump, arrived in downtown Los Angeles Sunday, June 8. It's not the first time a president has exercised their control over the Guard to respond to protests and demonstrations − here's a look at when prior administrations deployed the force in cases of civil unrest and crisis.
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What is the National Guard?
Unlike other branches of the military, the National Guard can be deployed by both states and the federal government, and members serve simultaneously in their state National Guards and in either the Army or Air National Guard of the U.S.
National Guard members can be deployed by the governors of their resident states and by the president of the U.S. Statewide mobilizations often are to support communities during and after natural disasters and amid protests, the Guard website says, and have recently been used to respond to the pandemic and to border security.
The president can deploy the guard to serve missions overseas, which the Council on Foreign Relations says has happened more frequently in recent years, pointing to deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Poland, and the Horn of Africa.
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When have presidents called in the National Guard amid protests?
While presidents have called on the National Guard dozens of times since the nation's inception to respond to "civil unrest," it wasn't until 1967 that presidents federalized the Guard to further assist law enforcement agencies responding to protests and demonstrations.
The earliest instances of presidents sending the Guard in to quell civil unrest are in 1794 and 1799, when Presidents George Washington and John Adams called upon state militia and volunteer units to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection and Fries' Rebellion, according to a 2020 report by the National Guard Bureau.
Presidents avoided calling upon the militia in response to civil disturbances for most of the 19th century, the Bureau said, with state militias quelling "labor riots and slave revolts" most of the time. Following the Civil War, the modern National Guard says it played active roles in "quelling the race riots and labor strikes throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries," and for 90 years between the beginning of Reconstruction and the early years of the Civil Rights era, no president federalized the force for civil disturbance operations.
The Civil Rights movement marked the beginning of a more present federalized Guard in instances of unrest like protests, demonstrations and riots. Throughout this period, Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson federalized the National Guard 'to enforce the expansion of civil rights and to ensure public order,' the National Guard Bureau said.
The Guard was involved in many of the most pivotal Civil Rights-era events, such as the school desegregations and ensuing violence in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, the University of Mississippi in 1962, and at the University of Alabama in 1963. The Alabama National Guard was also called into federal service for the Selma-Montgomery March in 1965, the National Guard Bureau said.
National Guard members were also called in during the 'Detroit Rebellion' of 1967, and to respond to the protests and violence that followed Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968.
After Trump's deployment of the National Guard on Sunday, June 8, the two most recent times a president federalized the National Guard for civil disturbance operations were approximately 55 and 33 years ago, respectively.
President Richard Nixon deployed the force in 1970 in response to the Postal Strike that was the first and largest walkout ever against the federal government. Most recently, President George W. Bush in 1992 called on Guard members to respond to the 1992 Rodney King riots, which broke out after the acquittal of the Los Angeles Police Department officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King. The unrest left 60 people dead and 2,300 injured, according to the Bill of Rights Institute, and thousands of members of the Guard, the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps were deployed in the city.
National Guard deployments in LA: A brief history
The National Guard has been deployed to Los Angeles several times in response to civil disorder and natural disasters, at the request of state and local officials. The Guard is an especially familiar force with large swaths of the state that have experienced historic wildfires over the past decades, greater Los Angeles included.
In 1965, nearly 14,000 Guard troops were sent to Los Angeles amid the Watts protests at the request of the California lieutenant governor, according to Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.
In 1992, former President George H.W. Bush ordered National Guards to respond to the Rodney King protests in Los Angeles, which left left more than 60 people dead and 2,300 injured, according to the Bill of Rights Institute. It was the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked by a president.
In 1994, the Guard was sent to assist with the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake caused billions in damages primarily in the San Fernando Valley, 20 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and killed at least 57 people.
It is the first time in decades a president has moved to deploy troops in such a manner without a governor's consent or explicit invitation, Reuters reported, and the move has prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom to say he plans to sue the administration over the deployment.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Reuters.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr.
