A federal judge in the United States has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration acted illegally when it sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to anti-immigration protests.
California District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled on the Trump administration’s controversial June deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
Breyer said the Trump administration violated federal law by sending the military to Los Angeles to accompany federal agents on a crackdown on illegal immigrants and to support law enforcement during protests against those crackdowns.
Judge Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that Trump was using the military as “a national police force under the command of the president.”
In June, massive protests were held in Los Angeles over mass arrests of illegal immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and riots broke out during the protests, in which dozens of demonstrators were arrested.
Trump then announced that he had deployed the National Guard to bring the situation under control and accused the Democrats who govern the city of escalating the violence.
At Trump’s order, the US Department of Defense began preparations to deploy 4,000 National Guard members to the region, while then-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that due to “growing threats”, an additional 700 Marines would be sent to maintain order.
The Democratic administration of California filed a lawsuit over the summer, claiming that the deployment of troops violated a law prohibiting the use of military force to enforce local laws.
