Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
A federal judge on Friday raised sharp questions about the Trump administration’s need to maintain authority and command California National Guard troops were first deployed in los angeles Following violent protests in June.
at a hearing in san franciscoU.S. District Judge Charles Breyer suggested that conditions in Los Angeles had changed since the initial deployment, and he questioned whether the administration could control State Guard troops “in perpetuity” under its interpretation of federal law.
“No crisis lasts forever,” he said. “I think experience teaches us that crises come and crises go. That’s how it works.”
He pressured a government lawyer to provide evidence that state officials were either unable or unwilling to help secure federal personnel and property in the area and noted the President donald trump He had access to thousands of active duty soldiers in California.
California officials have asked Breyer to issue a preliminary injunction to return control of the remaining California National Guard troops in Los Angeles to the state. Breyer did not rule immediately. He has previously found the administration’s deployment of the California National Guard illegal.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said after the hearing, “The National Guard is not the president’s traveling private army that he can deploy wherever he wants, whenever he wants, for as long as he wants, for any reason or no reason.”
Trump initially called out more than 4,000 California National Guard troops in response to protests over his stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws, but by late October that number had dwindled to several hundred, leaving only 100 or so troops in the Los Angeles area.
However, the Republican president has also attempted to use Guard members in Portland, Oregon and California chicagoAs part of his effort to send troops into Democratic-run cities despite strong resistance from mayors and governors.
Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton said federal law gives the president the power to extend control over State Guard troops for as long as he deems necessary.
The troops remaining in Los Angeles were allowing immigration agents to continue their mission and protect federal property, he said, adding that someone had thrown two incendiary devices at the federal building on Monday.
Hamilton said the court does not have the authority to review how the president manages the Guard mission, but even if it could, it would have to consider the violence that has occurred this summer.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to what happened in Los Angeles in June this year,” he said.
Trump’s call out of the California National Guard was the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor and marked a significant escalation in the administration’s efforts to enforce its mass deportation policy. They were deployed outside a federal detention center in the city, where protesters had gathered, and later sent onto the streets to protect immigration officers while making arrests.
California sued, and Breyer issued a temporary restraining order requiring the administration to return control of the Guard troops to California. However, an appeals court panel put that decision on hold. Breyer was nominated to the bench by Democrat President Bill Clinton.
California argued that the President was using Guard members in violation of a law limiting the use of the military in domestic affairs.
The administration said courts could not doubt the president’s judgment that violence during protests made it impossible for him to execute U.S. laws with regular forces and reflected insurrection, or the threat of insurrection.
In September, Breyer ruled after a trial that the deployment violated the law. Other judges have blocked the administration from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon and Chicago.
,
Thanawala reported from Atlanta.
