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California called on Tuesday for a temporary restraining order to block the deployment of both the State Guard and the U.S. Marines in Los Angeles amid massive protests over wiping out federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The request was filed in the same federal lawsuit filed Monday by the state and the governor of California. There, he alleged that Trump had surpassed his authority and violated the US Constitution by sending troops to American cities without the request or approval of the governor or local officials.
Atty, California. General Rob Bonta, who handles the lawsuit on behalf of both Newsom and the state, said the restraining order is necessary to immediately stop the deployment. Local officials allegedly claim they were making claims, sparking tensions caused by immigration thwarting and arrests in one community with a large immigrant community.
“The president is looking to pretend to put his troops on the streets of America to intimidate and quiet those who oppose him,” Bonta said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s not just immoral, it’s illegal and dangerous.”
Newsom repeated Bonta in his own statement, saying that the federal government is “now changing the military against American citizens.”
“Sending trained fighter jets onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the core of our democracy,” Newsom said. “Donald Trump is acting like a tyrant, not a president.”
The state’s request on Tuesday called for a restraining order to the state to be granted by 1pm on Tuesday “to prevent immediate and irreparable harm.”
Without such relief, the state appointed the Trump administration to “use the use of military and federal security forces on patrol communities, or otherwise law enforcement activities would cause immediate harm to national sovereignty, deprive and promote the state of critical resources, robbing and promoting tensions and public unrest.”
The request specifically points out that the use of military forces, such as the Marines, to carry out domestic policing tasks, is illegal and that Trump administration officials say is how Marines deployed in Los Angeles will be used.
“The deployment of Marines for law enforcement purposes is equally illegal. For more than a century, the Posse Comitatus Act has explicitly banned the use of active duty and federal national guards for civil law enforcement,” the state’s request states. “And President Heggs and his secretary made public and personally clear that Marines are not in Los Angeles to stand outside the federal building.”
On Trump’s direction, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses mobilized about 2,000 members of the state’s National Guard on Saturday after President Trump plunged L.A. into chaos and put federal agents in danger, mobilizing another 2,000 members on Monday. The Pentagon approved the deployment of 700 US Marines from Twentin Palms bases to the city on Monday, along with a stated mission to protect federal buildings and agents.
Hegseth said the deployment will last for 60 days, with Pentagon’s representative budget director saying the cost would be at least $134 million. He told members of the House Budget and Defense Subcommittee that the length of the deployment is intended to be “insure that the other side of the riots, looters and thugs attacking officers that we are not going anywhere.”
Local officials condemned the violence, property damage and robbery that occurred alongside the protest, but Trump administration officials disproportionately blew the issue away, saying there was no need for federal forces in the city.
Constitutional scholars and some members of the legislature have also questioned the domestic deployment of the military, particularly without the support of local and state officials. It is called the tactics of dictators and authoritarian regimes.
La Mayor Karen Bass questioned what the Marines would do on the ground, but police chief Jim McDonnell said the arrival of the troops in the city without “clear coordination” with local law enforcement “shows important logistics and operational challenges for us who are tasked with protecting the city.”
Bonta said Monday that the 10th amendment to the US Constitution would limit the federal authority over such deployments, and that the deployment of the National Guard to quell the protest without Newsom’s consent would be “illegal” and “unprecedented” and that the deployment of the Marines would be “also illegal.”
On Tuesday, he said the state was asking the court to “prevent the Trump administration from ordering military or federal security forces to patrol our communities or engaging in general law enforcement activities beyond federal property.”
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