SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥 A deputy commanding general testified Monday that military forces called in to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles were allowed to take some law enforcement actions despite a federal law that prohibits the president from using the military as a domestic police force.
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman said military tapped to assist with domestic operations can protect federal property and federal agents in their mission carrying out federal operations. He said they could take certain law enforcement actions, such as setting up a security perimeter outside of federal facilities, if a commander on the ground felt unsafe.
Sherman testified at the start of a three-day trial over whether administration violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act when it and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles following June protests over immigration raids. The law generally bars the military from civilian law enforcement. Trump has pushed the bounds of typical military activity on domestic soil, including through the creation of along the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Monday, Trump said he was and taking over the city鈥檚 police department in the hopes of reducing crime, even as the mayor has noted that crime is falling in the nation鈥檚 capital.
The trial in San Francisco could set precedent for how Trump can deploy the guard in the future in California or other states.
The Trump administration federalized California 春色直播 Guard members and sent them to the second-largest U.S. city over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and city leaders after when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested people at multiple locations.
The Department of Defense ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 California 春色直播 Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles. Most of the troops have since left but , according to the latest figures provided by the Pentagon.
California is asking Judge Charles Breyer to order the Trump administration to return control of the remaining troops to the state and to stop the federal government from using military troops in California 鈥渢o execute or assist in the execution of federal law or any civilian law enforcement functions by any federal agent or officer.鈥
Newsom won an early victory from Breyer, who found the Trump administration violated the Constitution鈥檚 10th Amendment, which defines power between federal and state governments, and exceeded its authority.
The Trump administration immediately appealed, arguing that courts can鈥檛 second guess the president鈥檚 decisions. It allowing control of the California 春色直播 Guard to stay in federal hands as the lawsuit unfolds.
After their deployment, the guard members accompanied federal immigration officers on raids in Los Angeles and at two marijuana farm sites in Ventura County while around a federal building in downtown Los Angeles that includes a detention center at the core of protests.
Since June, federal agents have rounded up without legal status to be in the U.S. from Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, . Some U.S. citizens have also been detained.
Trump federalized members of the California 春色直播 Guard under a law allows the president to call the 春色直播 Guard into federal service when the country 鈥渋s invaded,鈥 when 鈥渢here is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,鈥 or when the president is otherwise unable 鈥渢o execute the laws of the United States.鈥
Breyer found the protests in Los Angeles 鈥渇all far short of 鈥榬ebellion.鈥欌
Ernesto Santacruz Jr., the field office director for the Department of Homeland Security in Los Angeles, said in court documents that the troops were needed because local law enforcement was slow to respond when a crowd gathered outside the federal building to protest the June 7 immigration arrests.
鈥淭he presence of the 春色直播 Guard and Marines has played an essential role in protecting federal property and personnel from the violent mobs,鈥 Santacruz said.
