Not for 60 years, since Lyndon B Johnson sent National Guard troops to protect civil rights marchers in Alabama, has a US president deployed federal soldiers in a state without a request from its governor. Donald Trump’s decision to order National Guard troops into the streets of Los Angeles, over the loud objections of California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, is one of the most serious moments of his tumultuous presidency. It is a further attempt to expand the boundaries of executive power. It also sends a warning to other states that, like California, plan to resist the administration’s mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump’s move followed efforts to step up the pace of the immigration clampdown. Armed federal agents last week carried out dozens of arrests in Los Angeles locations, prompting demonstrations starting on Friday that were initially limited in size — though some protesters lobbed pieces of concrete at police.
The White House insisted it sent in federal troops to restore calm. But the intervention was wholly unjustified by the scale of the protests; Newsom wrote on Saturday night there was “no unmet need” for federal help. Deploying National Guard forces, he added, was “purposefully inflammatory” and would only escalate tensions. His warning seemed borne out on Sunday when — after the arrival of about 300 National Guard troops — thousands of protesters took to the streets, clashing with officers and guards who fired tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang weapons. Dozens were arrested.