(Brett Rowland, The Center Square) Federal officials showed no signs of changing course Tuesday after days of protests in Los Angeles sparked by opposition to enforcement of immigration law.
“If I didn’t send in the troops to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now,” President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday morning.
Trump ordered 2,000 additional National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles on Monday after 2,000 National Guard troops arrived Sunday amid continuing unrest. Trump’s orders come over objections from California officials.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the president for sending in the troops on Monday and a delegation of California elected officials called for the removal of both the National Guard and Marines during a news conference Tuesday morning.
“In a democracy, civil disobedience isn’t met with military force, but that’s exactly what Trump is doing,” U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., said Tuesday. “He’s inciting a situation that could get worse if people do not bring down the tension. And the way he can bring down the tension is by withdrawing the National Guard and the U.S. military.”
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the National Guard will “enable federal law enforcement officers to safely conduct their duties.”
U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the troops were called in “due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings.” He said 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton, about 100 miles away, are being deployed to Los Angeles.
“We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers – even if Gavin Newsom will not,” Hegseth said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Newsom an “accomplice” in the unrest in Los Angeles during a news conference on Tuesday morning.
“He’s standing in the way of the administration and the carrying out of federal law. He is applauding the bad guys and standing in the way of the good guys. He’s a participant, an accomplice, in our federal law enforcement agents being not just disrespected but assaulted,” Johnson said. “This is a serious problem. And the governor is now filing a lawsuit against the president – what a joke. Do your job, man, that’s what I’d tell Gavin Newsom. Do you job, stop working on your rebranding and be a governor. Stand up for the rule of law.”
In the state’s lawsuit challenging Trump’s orders, California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked a judge to block the Pentagon “from federalizing and deploying the California National Guard and military without meeting the requirements” of federal law.
“Reflecting the Founders’ distrust of military rule, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of our Nation strictly limit the domestic use of the military, including the federalized National Guard,” Bonta’s complaint says. “The Posse Comitatus Act codifies these strict rules, prohibiting the military from engaging in civil law enforcement unless explicitly authorized by law. The authority to use the military domestically for civil law enforcement is reserved for dire, narrow circumstances, none of which is present here. Defendants have overstepped the bounds of law and are intent on going as far as they can to use the military in unprecedented, unlawful ways.”
