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Associated Press

The Los Angeles field office director for the Department of Homeland Security testified on Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers desperately needed the help of military personnel in carrying out arrests.
The question was whether US President Donald Trump’s deployment of armed forces goes against US law that generally prohibits the president from using the military to police domestic affairs.
Ernesto Santacruz Jnr testified at the start of a three-day trial in San Francisco over whether 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.
The administration has argued that federal military personnel are allowed to protect federal property and federal agents.


Santacruz said that before the deployment, he received multiple reports daily of attacks on his officers.
After the deployment, he said: “We still had officer assault situations, but they did reduce drastically”.
Trump has pushed the bounds of typical military activity on domestic soil, including through the creation of militarised zones along the US-Mexico border.
On Monday, the president said he was deploying the National Guard across Washington DC, and taking over the city’s police department in hopes of reducing crime, even as the mayor has noted crime was falling in the nation’s capital.
The trial 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 Governor Gavin Newsom and city leaders after protests erupted on June 7 when ICE officers arrested people at multiple locations.

The Department of Defence 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 was 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”.
Trump federalised members of the California National Guard under a law that 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’”.
Witnesses called by the state of California testified Monday as to what the deployed forces could and could not do.
Major General Scott Sherman said personnel were authorised, in certain situations, to carry out some law enforcement actions, such as setting up a security perimeter outside of federal facilities and detaining civilians for police arrest.
Breyer, who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, appeared sceptical of the federal government’s arguments.
Breyer handed Newsom an early victory when the judge found the Trump administration violated the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which defines power between federal and state governments, and exceeded its authority.


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Trial starts over Trump’s deployment of National Guard to Los Angeles

National Guard troops and other law enforcement clash with demonstrators in Los Angeles on June 8. Photo: Kyodo

California Governor Gavin Newsom and US President Donald Trump earlier this year. File photo: AP

Trump takes over Washington DC police, deploys National Guard in capital

US President Donald Trump at a press conference on Monday. Photo: Reuters

National Guard troops helped provide security on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2021, before Joe Biden was sworn in as president. File photo: AP

A homeless person in Washington DC. Photo: Reuters

Trump administration calling back 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles

California National Guard at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles in June. Photo: AP

Federal agents on horseback at MacArthur Park on July 7. Photo: AP

US uses warlike rhetoric, former Superman actor to recruit for immigration crackdown

Law enforcement officers, including HSI and ICE agents, take people into custody at an immigration court in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo: Reuters

Actor Dean Cain. Photo: AP

A raid by federal immigration agents at a farm in California. Photo: AFP

Trump vows to evict homeless from Washington DC, mulls National Guard role

A person sleeping in Freedom Plaza, Washington DC. Photo: AFP

A US Capitol police officer. Photo: AFP

California’s National Guard was recently deployed to Los Angeles to quell protests. File photo: TNS

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World

United States & Canada

The outcome of the case could set a precedent for how Donald Trump can deploy the Guard in California or other states in the future


The outcome of the case could set a precedent for how Donald Trump can deploy the Guard in California or other states in the future.


Trial starts over Trump’s deployment of National Guard to Los Angeles

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The outcome of the case could set a precedent for how Donald Trump can deploy the Guard in California or other states in the future

The outcome of the case could set a precedent for how Donald Trump can deploy the Guard in California or other states in the future