Trump Moves to Deploy National Guard to L.A. Over ICE Protests
www.rollingstone.com
Donald Trump will send 2,000 National Guard to quell ICE protests in Los Angeles, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Donald Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan said Saturday the administration is planning to send in the National Guard Saturday evening to quell protests in Los Angeles.

“This is about enforcing the law, and again, we’re not going to apologize for doing it,” Homan said on Fox News. He continued: “We’re already ahead of the game. We were already mobilizing. We’re gonna bring National Guard in tonight. We’re gonna continue doing our job. We’re gonna push back on these people, and we’re gonna [enforce] the law.”

On Saturday night, following Homan’s on-camera remarks, both national Democratic and Republican figures were scrambling to figure out if he was just mouthing off, or if the federal troops were actually on their way, or just … what the hell was going on.

Two Trump administration officials say they learned about the alleged National Guard plans from journalists such as Rolling Stone’s who had reached out to them on Saturday evening, asking for clarification.

Homan did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

“The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wrote on Bluesky Saturday evening. “That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”

He added, “LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need. The Guard has been admirably serving LA throughout recovery. This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.”

The president can request, but not order, a governor to deploy their state’s National Guard. The governor can refuse the request, and Trump would not be allowed under the Constitution to send National Guard troops to California from other states. However, the Trump administration has previously mulled invoking the Insurrection Act, which could allow the president to deploy the U.S. military domestically, federalize the National Guard, and send in troops to quell uprisings or civil disorder.

Editorializing beyond here:

The Insurrectionist invokes the Insurrection Act

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    281·
    1 day ago

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Homan

    He was appointed by President Barack Obama as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations in 2013.[6] By 2014, under the Obama administration, Homan began to argue that separating children from their caregivers would be an effective means of discouraging illegal border crossings. The journalist Caitlin Dickerson describes him as the “intellectual father” of the policy, which he outlined years before it was adopted by the Trump administration. “Most parents don’t want to be separated”, Homan told Dickerson. He argued that this fact made separation an effective tool for immigration enforcement: “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think that would have an effect.”[8] In 2015, Obama awarded him a Presidential Rank Award as a Distinguished Executive. A Washington Post article at the time stated, “Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it.”[9][10]

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      55·
      1 day ago

      This all started within the last 48 hrs, ICE has been doing mass arrests with BearCats, basically massive, armored super SUVs… convoys of 10s of them.

      LA got sick of it and people just began showing up, spontaneously, en masse, forming human chains around depots where ICE vehicles were based out of…

      Just today, ICE raided a fucking highschool graduation ceremony.

      They are disappearing people who are in compliance with all their scheduled immigration related court hearings.

      They are grabbing them because … well they are in compliance, so the court knows where they live… so ICE knows where they live.

      Its all massively illegal.