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Two U.S. senators from California pushed top military officials on Tuesday for details on local leadership dissent and what active-duty troops would do on the ground, and how hundreds of U.S. Marines were deployed in Los Angeles.
In a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses, Sen. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla asked the Pentagon to explain the legal basis for deploying 700 active-duty Marines amid continuing protests and uncertainties over the Southern California immigration attacks.
“The decision to deploy active duty veterans within the United States should only be made in the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them,” Sif and Padilla wrote in the letter. “It would be even more unfair that this development was made over state authorities’ objections.”
California has challenged the legality of militarization, and in a lawsuit filed Monday, it alleges that deployments of both the National Guard and Marines violate the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it spells out the limits of federal powers.
Schiff and Padilla ask Hegses to clarify what missions the Marines will follow during deployment.
The senator also asked whether the Department of Defense received requests from the White House or the Department of Homeland Security for the “scope of Marines’ missions and duties.”
Hegses mobilized Marines from Twantin Nin Palms base on Monday. On Monday evening, a convoy was seen heading eastward on 10 highways towards Los Angeles.
Schiff and Padilla said they received notification from the U.S. Northern Command about the mobilization that Congress said on Monday that the Marines were deployed to “restore order” and deployed to support around 4,000 members of the National Guard, who were called to work on Saturday and Monday.
The notice said it “provided no material information to understand the legal authority, mission or engagement rules of the Marines involved in this national deployment.”
The California National Guard was first mobilized on Saturday night over Newsom’s objections.
The last time the president sent the National Guard without the governor’s request was 60 years ago, when President Lyndon B. Johnson mobilized Alabama troops to defend civil rights demonstrators in 1965 and enforced a federal court order.
Trump and the White House say military mobilization is legal under section 12406 of Title 10 of the US Act on the Armed Forces. The law gives the president the power to federate the National Guard if there is “a risk of rebellion or rebellion against the authority of the US government,” but says security guards must be called through orders from the governor.
Trump said that without the military mobilization, “Los Angeles would have been completely wiped out.”
Days of protest include violent clashes with police, vandalism and robbery.
“It was heading in the wrong direction,” Trump said Monday. “We’re heading in the right direction now, and Gavin wants Gavin’s support as he’s a big beneficiary, as he straightens his problem. So his condition is confusing.”
On Tuesday morning, LA Mayor Karen Bass said city officials were not told what the military would do.
“This is absolutely unnecessary,” Bass said. “People asked me, ‘What are the Marines going to do when they get here?’ That’s a good question. ”
Tuesday, California Atty. General Rob Bonta sought a restraining order that blocked the deployment.
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