Trump Orders 2000 National Guard Troops To California To Shut Down Anti-ICE Protests

Failures

from the unlawful-orders-from-ol'-Law-and-Order dept

As ICE continues to engage in a mass deportation program that more closely resembles a mass kidnapping program, communities have literally taken to the streets to chase ICE and their law enforcement enablers out of town. Rolling in looking like some sort of cartel death squad just isn’t intimidating enough anymore. And if you can’t do your job legally or honestly, people may stop you from doing your job at all.

This uprising against ICE is completely earned. The administration’s pretenses for stripping people of rights and dumping them in foreign gulags have been constantly undermined by facts, leaks, and occasionally, the government’s own legal filings in the multiple lawsuits these actions have provoked.

Since the Trump Administration can’t win on the merits, President Trump has decided to open up the Martial Law playset he last toyed with during the George Floyd demonstrations in 2020. Some assembly is required, of course. But the parts have been dumped on the table and are being arranged by Donald Trump.

With ICE agents being routinely forced to hightail out of neighborhoods they hoped to be raiding, Trump has declared war on California, in a matter of speaking. The memorandum issued by the White House on Saturday says Trump will be sending in the National Guard to ensure ICE can continue to violate rights on the regular with its indiscriminate migrant hunts.

[B]y the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard under 10 U.S.C. 12406 to temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations.  Further, I direct and delegate actions as necessary for the Secretary of Defense to coordinate with the Governors of the States and the National Guard Bureau in identifying and ordering into Federal service the appropriate members and units of the National Guard under this authority.  The members and units of the National Guard called into Federal service shall be at least 2,000 National Guard personnel and the duration of duty shall be for 60 days or at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense.

The opening invocation is pretty much meaningless. Claiming you’re using “authority vested in me” only means something if you actually have that authority. The law cited by Trump only allows the mobilization of the military if there’s a “rebellion or danger of a rebellion,” an “invasion or danger of invasion” by a foreign nation, and (more vaguely) the administration is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”

The first two prongs are non-starters. No invasion or rebellion is happening. The third might support this deployment if Trump feels ICE can’t perform its usual work of vanishing people (along with their rights) into the nearest vehicle headed towards a detention center or foreign prison.

And if that were all the law said about that particular issue, Trump might be in the clear. But that’s not all it says:

Orders for these purposes shall be issued through the governors of the States or, in the case of the District of Columbia, through the commanding general of the National Guard of the District of Columbia.

Without more, Trump can’t do this. The states themselves would have to issue these orders. Without that key component, this flooding of the zone with National Guard troops is illegal — and that’s even before you consider the Posse Comitatus Act, which says military members can’t be used to engage in federal law enforcement activities. National Guard units are generally considered to be covered under state law, which means they could be used to help enforce state laws. But this memo directly instructs the National Guard to “temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law.”

Given that fact, it’s probably only a matter of time before Trump invokes the Insurrection Act to keep his martial law plans on track. If he does, he’ll be setting the sort of precedent one would hope would taint him and his administration forever.

The last time this was used was to protect civil rights and liberties.

In 1958, President Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to Arkansas to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision ending racial segregation in schools, and to defend Black students against a violent mob.

If Trump decides to go this route, he’ll be doing it to insulate the administration from the consequences of its own actions, adding military muscle to a mass deportation program that has been carried out with a complete disregard for things like due process, the Fourth Amendment, and the entire judicial system.

On top of all of that, President Trump has given his hand-picked Defense Department head free rein to add whatever he wants to the mix:

In addition, the Secretary of Defense may employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion.

And, of course, Pete Hegseth has already responded to this open invitation by threatening to make everything even more illegal than it already is.

If you can’t read/see the embedded image, it’s a post by Pete Hegseth on XTwitter that says:

The violent mob assaults on ICE and Federal Law Enforcement are designed to prevent the removal of Criminal Illegal Aliens from our soil; a dangerous invasion facilitated by criminal cartels (aka Foreign Terrorist Organizations) and a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK.

Under President Trump, violence & destruction against federal agents & federal facilities will NOT be tolerated. It’s COMMON SENSE.

The @DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles. And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.

I’m sure both of these men are just dying for an excuse to mobilize the military against US citizens and residents that refuse to treat ICE operations with anything else but complete deference. During Trump’s first term as president, there were still a few people capable (or willing) to pull him back from the edge of the brink. In this administration, there’s no one willing to perform that function. They’re only willing to push him closer to the edge and, when the time comes, join him in his leap into the void.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, dhs, donald trump, ice, insurrection act, martial law, mass deportations, national guard, pete hegseth, protests