What to know about Trump displaying the National Guard to the Los Angeles immigration protests

President Donald Trump says he is deploying 2,000 troops from the California National Guard to Los Angeles to respond to immigration protests, about the objections of the governor of California Gavin Newsom.

It is not the first time that Trump activated the National Guard to quell the protests. In 2020, he asked the governors of several states to send troops to Washington, DC to respond to the demonstrations that arose after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. Many of the governors who asked agreed, sending troops to the Federal District. The governors who rejected the request were allowed to do so, keeping their troops in their homeland.

This time, however, Trump is acting in opposition to Newsom, who under normal circumstances would retain the control and command of the California National Guard. Although Trump said that federalizing the troops was necessary to “address illegality” in California, the Democratic governor said the measure was “deliberately inflammatory and only increase tensions.”

Here are some things that you should know about when and how the president can display troops on American soil.

The laws are a bit vague

Andrew Harnik through News

In general, federal military forces cannot carry out duties to apply civil law against US citizens, except in times of emergency.

A 18th century war law called the insurrection law is the main legal mechanism that a president can use to activate the Military or National Guard in times of rebellion or disturbances. But Trump did not invoke the insurrection law on Saturday.

Instead, it was based on a similar federal law that allows the president to federalize the National Guard troops under certain circumstances.

The National Guard is a hybrid entity that attends to state and federal interests. Often it operates under state command and control, using state funds. Sometimes, the National Guard troops will be assigned by their state to serve federal missions, remain under state command but using federal funds.

The law cited by Trump’s proclamation places the National Guard troops under Federal Command. The law says that it can be done in three circumstances: when the United States is invaded or in danger of invasion; When there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the United States government, or when the president cannot “execute the laws of the United States”, with regular forces.

But the law also says that orders for these purposes “will be issued through the governors of the States.” It is not clear immediately if the president can activate the National Guard troops without the order of the governor of that state.

The role of the National Guard troops will be limited

Taurat Hossain/Anadolu through Getty Images

In particular, Trump’s proclamation says that the National Guard troops will play a support role in protecting ICE officers while enforcing the law, instead of troops carrying out a work of application of the law.

Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Law Center of the University of Georgetown who specializes in Military Justice and National Security Law, says that the National Guard troops cannot legally participate in activities of application of ordinary law unless Trump invokes the insurrection law.

Vlack said that the measure increases the risk that troops can end up using force while placing that “protection” role. The measure could also be a precursor to other more aggressive troops deployments in the future, he wrote on his website.

“There is nothing that these troops can do that, for example, to ICE officers against those who have directed these protests could not do so,” Vlack wrote.

The troops have been mobilized before

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The insurrection law and related laws were used during the era of civil rights to protect activists and students disaggregating schools. President Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect the black students who make up the central high school after the governor of that state activated the National Guard to keep the students out.

George Hw Bush used the insurrection law to respond to the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers who were recorded on video that beat the black motorist Rodney King.

The National Guard troops have been deployed for an emergency variety, including Covid pandemic, hurricanes and other natural disasters. But in general, these implementations are carried out with the agreements of the governors of the states that responded.

Trump is willing to use the army in his homeland

Alex Brandon through News

In 2020, Trump asked the governors of several states to deploy their National Guard troops in Washington, DC, to quell the protests that arose after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. Many of the governors agreed, sending troops to the Federal District.

At that time, Trump also threatened to invoke the insurrection law for protests after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, an intervention that is rarely seen in the modern history of the United States. But the then Secretary of Defense Mark Esper withdraw, saying that the law should be invoked “only in the most urgent and serious situations.”

Trump never invoked insurrection law during his first term.

But while campaigning for his second term, he suggested that he would change. Trump told an audience in Iowa in 2023 that he was prevented from using the military to suppress violence in cities and states during his first mandate, and said that if the problem appeared again in his next term: “I am not waiting.”

Trump also promised to deploy the National Guard to help carry out his objectives of application of immigration, and his main advisor Stephen Miller explained how it would be carried out: the troops under the supporting republican governors would send troops to the nearby states that refuse to participate, Miller said in “The show of Charlie Kirk”, in 2023.

After Trump announced that he was federal to the National Guard troops on Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said other measures could follow.

Hegseth wrote on the social media platform X that the active marines in Camp Pendleton were on a maximum alert and would also mobilize “if violence continues.”