California asked a federal court to halt the Trump administration’s “illegal” deployment of the state’s National Guard and the US Marines in Los Angeles to quell unrest over the president’s immigration raids.
The move to block the administration from mobilizing thousands of troops follows tensions over anti-deportation protests. Demonstrators have clashed for days with law enforcement, sometimes violently, while Governor Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump trade blame over the responsibility for restoring order.
Attorneys for Newsom and California argued that Trump has “repeatedly invoked emergency powers to exceed the bounds of lawful executive authority” and accused the president of “another unprecedented power grab” with the military escalation in the nation’s second-largest metropolis.
“Deploying over 4,000 federalized military forces to quell a protest or prevent future protests despite the lack of evidence that local law enforcement was incapable of asserting control and ensuring public safety during such protests” is unconstitutional, according to the 22-page complaint filed late Monday in San Francisco federal court. The governor, a Democrat, urged the court to void the president’s orders and transfer the National Guard from Defense Department control “back to the rightful command” of the state.