By JANIE HAR and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — 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 is whether President Donald Trump‘s deployment of armed forces goes against U.S. law that generally prohibits the president from using the military to police domestic affairs.
Ernesto Santacruz Jr. 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 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles following June protests over immigration raids. The administration has argued federal military are allowed to protect federal property and federal agents.
Santacruz said 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 militarized zones along the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, the president said he was deploying the National Guard across Washington, D.C., and taking over the city’s police department in hopes of reducing crime, even as the mayor has noted crime is falling in the nation’s capital.
The trial could set precedent for how Trump can deploy the guard in the future in California or other states.
The Trump administration federalized California National Guard members and sent them to the second-largest U.S. city over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and city leaders after protests erupted June 7 when ICE officers arrested people at multiple locations.
The Department of Defense 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 is 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 federalized 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.
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman said personnel were authorized, 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 skeptical 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.
The Trump administration immediately appealed, arguing that courts can’t second guess the president’s decisions. It secured a temporary halt allowing control of the California National Guard to stay in federal hands as the lawsuit unfolds.
After their deployment, the guard members accompanied federal immigration officers on raids in Los Angeles and at two marijuana farm sites in Ventura County while Marines mostly stood guard around a federal building in downtown Los Angeles that includes a detention center at the core of protests.
Since June, federal agents have rounded up immigrants without legal status to be in the U.S. from Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, and farms. Some U.S. citizens have also been detained.
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