Court reviews Trump’s troop deployment to Los Angeles

A federal court in San Francisco has opened hearings in a case testing the limits of presidential power to use military forces for domestic law enforcement. The three-day trial examines whether former President Donald Trump’s June deployment of U.S. Marines and federalized National Guard troops to Los Angeles violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the military from policing civilians.

Ernesto Santacruz Jr., a Homeland Security field office director in Los Angeles, testified that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers faced daily threats before the military arrived, noting that incidents “reduced drastically” afterward. The Trump administration argues the deployment was to protect federal property and personnel during protests over immigration raids.

Following June 7 demonstrations sparked by ICE arrests, about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 Marines were sent to Los Angeles despite objections from Governor Gavin Newsom and local officials. While most have since left, 250 Guard members remain under federal control.

California has asked Judge Charles Breyer to return control of the remaining Guard members and block the federal government from using military forces in law enforcement. Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman testified that troops were authorized to take certain actions, such as setting security perimeters and detaining civilians for police.

Judge Breyer questioned whether the protests qualified as a “rebellion” under the statute used to federalize the Guard, saying they fell short of that threshold. He had earlier ruled that the Trump administration exceeded its authority and violated the 10th Amendment, but an appeals court temporarily stayed that decision.

During the deployment, National Guard members joined ICE agents in raids, while Marines mainly guarded a federal building downtown. Since June, ICE has detained undocumented immigrants at locations across the city, with state attorneys alleging that U.S. citizens were also detained in the process.