Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement that California personnel were on their way Sunday and called the deployment “a breathtaking abuse of the law and power.” He said these troops were “federalized” and put under the president’s control months ago over his objections, in response to unrest in Los Angeles.
“The commander-in-chief is using the U.S. military as a political weapon against American citizens,” Newsom said.
California also joined Oregon’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard personnel to Portland as unlawful and unnecessary overreach.
Three hundred California National Guard personnel deployed in southern California had already been federalized until early November, and leaders of the California Military Department had learned that all 300 of those “will be imminently deployed to Portland,” according to the amended complaint filed Sunday.
Trump deployed California National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June to enforce immigration law and has no legal grounds to redeploy them to Oregon for another purpose, Sunday’s court filing stated.
“They cannot continue to hold the federalized National Guard members hostage by altering their mission and sending them to another State,” the filing said.
The lawsuit notes that the president has the authority to deploy National Guard troops under very specific circumstances: repelling an invasion, suppressing a rebellion or enforcing federal laws.
“There is no rebellion in Portland,” the filing said.
In a related court filing, an attorney in the California Military Department said the U.S. Army Northern Command advised the department on Sunday that an order will be issued keeping the 300 guard personnel federalized through the end of January.
Protests are confined to one city block
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland has recently been the site of nightly protests. A Trump-appointed federal judge in Oregon on Saturday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to deploy the Oregon National Guard in Portland to protect federal property amid protests after Trump called the city “war-ravaged.”
Oregon officials and Portland residents alike said that description was ludicrous. The protest was relatively small and localized to just one block of the city of 650,000 residents, Kotek said.
Judge Immergut, appointed by Trump during his first term, issued the order pending further arguments in a lawsuit brought by the state and city. She said the relatively small protests did not justify the use of federalized forces and allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the president is “specifically targeting cities that lean Democratic” or have leaders and residents who speak out against the administration’s abuses of power.
“It’s our National Guard, California’s National Guard, not Trump’s Royal Guard, as he seems to think,” Bonta said during a Sunday evening news conference. “Trump can’t use our military troops as his own personal police force.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said Sunday that he saw federal agents engaged in what he described as unjustified use of force and indiscriminately spraying pepper spray and impact munitions during a protest outside the ICE facility.
“This is an aggressive approach trying to inflame the situation that has otherwise been peaceful,” Wilson said.
Portland has alerted the civil rights division of the Department of Justice to the agents’ actions, Wilson said.
Troops also deployed to Illinois
Trump has characterized both Portland and Chicago as cities rife with crime and unrest. Since the start of his second term, he has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities.
Trump authorized the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago on Saturday.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said the situation in Chicago “does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the Governor opposes the deployment of the national guard under any status.” Pritzker didn’t receive any calls from federal officials about the deployment, his office said.
