Federal and state officials are locked in a high-stakes legal battle over President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy armed forces to Los Angeles during last June’s immigration protests. Critics argue that such an action breaches a century-old law restricting military involvement in domestic policing.
Testifying in a San Francisco courtroom Monday, Ernesto Santacruz Jr., the Los Angeles field office director for the Department of Homeland Security, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were in urgent need of military backup during the unrest. His remarks came at the start of a three-day trial examining whether the Trump administration violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act by sending National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to assist federal immigration raids.
According to Santacruz, his officers were facing “multiple reports daily” of assaults before the military’s arrival. “We still had officer assault situations, but they did reduce drastically,” he testified.
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The administration insists that federal troops are permitted to safeguard federal property and personnel. Trump’s move was made despite opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and local leaders, who condemned the decision after ICE arrests on June 7 sparked widespread demonstrations.
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Roughly 4,000 California National Guard members and 700 Marines were reportedly deployed, with most later withdrawn; however, 250 Guard members remain on duty, Pentagon officials confirmed. California is now asking U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to return full control of the Guard to the state and to bar Washington from using military personnel for civilian law enforcement functions.
Trump authorized the deployment under a federal statute allowing the president to call in the Guard during an invasion, a rebellion, or when “otherwise unable to execute the laws of the United States.” But Breyer said the protests in Los Angeles “fall far short of ‘rebellion.’”
State witnesses described the limits of military involvement. Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman testified that troops could set up security perimeters at federal facilities and detain individuals for handover to police. Marines mainly guarded a downtown Los Angeles federal building housing a detention center, while Guard members accompanied ICE agents on immigration raids and operations at two marijuana farms in Ventura County.
Breyer, appointed by President Bill Clinton, expressed skepticism toward the federal government’s defense and earlier ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority, violating the 10th Amendment. The administration quickly appealed, winning a temporary stay to keep the Guard under federal control.
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Since the June deployment, ICE has continued sweeping arrests of undocumented immigrants across Southern California, at bus stops, construction sites, farms, and even Home Depot parking lots, sometimes detaining U.S. citizens in the process.
