Trump Deployed Troops to LA - Here's What We're Going to Do About It

TL;DR: What You Need to Know

On Monday, June 23rd, the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6–3 split, allowed the Trump administration to resume swift deportations of migrants to third countries, overriding a lower court order that required migrants to be given the opportunity to challenge their removal
- Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson fiercely dissented, warning the decision places “thousands at risk of torture or death” by stripping away due‑process protections.
As of Sunday, June 15th, Trump has ordered federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations in Democratic-led cities, following major protests in L.A. and beyond against his immigration policies.
The Trump administration initiated a surge of militarized ICE raids across Los Angeles, targeting immigrant workers and families starting on June 6th, 2025.
- The LA community responded with peaceful protests across the city to demand fair treatment and to be free from militarized intimidation.
- ICE responded with violence, using tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protestors, journalists, and bystanders.
- David Huerta, President of SEIU California, was violently arrested by ICE while peacefully protesting and recording video. He was released on bond on June 10th.
Trump responded by federalizing 4,000 California National Guard troops—without Governor Newsom's consent—using a rarely invoked emergency law.
He has not invoked the Insurrection Act (yet), but 700 Marines were deployed to Los Angeles on June 9th.
On Thursday, June 12th, U.S. District Judge Charles Beyer ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in L.A. was illegal. On June 13th, the federal appeals court (9th Circuit) temporarily paused the court order that required Trump to return control of California’s National Guard to Governor Newsom, allowing his federal deployment to continue until a June 17 hearing. On June 19th, the US appeals court ruled that President Trump can maintain control of the National Guard troops he deployed to L.A, despite clear objections from city leaders and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
As protests continue to grow beyond L.A. and spread across the country, certain state officials are responding with escalating threats of militarized force. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott activated thousands of national guard troops statewide in Texas “to ensure peace and order” as demonstrations expand. Other Republican governors may follow suit.
On June 14th, LA County sheriffs were seen on live broadcast deploying less-than-lethal rubber bullets, flashbangs, and tear gas on a nonviolent crowd and shoving demonstrators with their horses.
We don’t back down in the face of Trump’s intimidation tactics. And we don’t give Trump the escalation he’s so hungry for. We recommit ourselves to peaceful, nonviolent protest.
On Saturday, June 14, over 5 million of us rose up all across the country in a national day of nonviolent protest with one message: No Kings. And that was just the beginning.

What Sparked the Protests?

On June 6, ICE agents launched raids across LA—hitting worksites and public spaces like a Home Depot in Westlake and buildings in the Fashion District. These raids were carried out in full tactical gear, with agents flanking armored vehicles and grabbing people off the street.

The response? Peaceful protests.

People gathered to chant, hold signs, and bear witness. They showed up for their communities.
Even the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that the protests were nonviolent.

And yet, Trump’s regime used the raids—and the peaceful response—to justify a military deployment.

SEIU Leader Detained During Peaceful Protest

When ICE began sweeping raids through LA, David Huerta, President of SEIU California, stood in protest alongside the workers his union represents. He was there peacefully—recording video, bearing witness, and exercising his First Amendment rights.

ICE officers violently shoved him, detained him, and transferred him to federal custody after a hospital visit. He was released on bond on June 10th.

His arrest is designed to send a clear message: dissent will be punished. Protest will be criminalized. Labor will be targeted. And the rest of us are supposed to get scared. We won’t.

Trump Sent in Troops—But Not Under the Insurrection Act

Here’s where the legal rubber meets the road: Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act. That law gives presidents the clearest—and most dangerous—authority to use military force inside the United States, but only in extreme, defined circumstances: a full-scale insurrection, a breakdown of public order, or a state government refusing to uphold federal law. None of that is happening in Los Angeles.

The protests in LA have been peaceful. Even the Los Angeles Police Department acknowledged that publicly. What’s playing out isn’t chaos—it’s a community standing up for itself. So Trump turned to two shakier, lesser-known powers: a Cold War-era statute and an old executive theory that’s never been meaningfully tested in court.

A Cold War-Era Statute: 10 U.S.C. § 12406

Trump’s first legal maneuver was to invoke 10 U.S.C. § 12406, which allows the president to federalize a state’s National Guard—but only under very specific conditions. The law lists three situations where this can happen:

A foreign invasion
A rebellion against the authority of the United States
A situation where regular federal forces are unable to enforce the law

There’s no invasion. California hasn’t refused to enforce federal law. So Trump is hanging his entire legal case on the third option: rebellion.

But even his own memo doesn’t say that outright. Instead, it says the protests “may” constitute rebellion—“to the extent that” they interfere with immigration enforcement. That’s not a firm legal argument. That’s vague, speculative language that sounds like it was written to create legal cover, not express legal certainty.

This isn’t a rebellion. It’s peaceful protest. And stretching this statute to fit that scenario is legally flimsy and dangerously dishonest.

A Shadow Theory: “Protective Power” of the Presidency

Trump’s second tool is even shakier: the so-called “protective power” of the presidency. This isn’t a power explicitly granted by Congress. It’s not found in the Constitution. It’s a theory—pieced together from old court cases and Department of Justice memos—that suggests the president has inherent authority to protect federal property and personnel from disruption.

According to the 1971 DOJ memo that remains the core justification, the protective power is strictly limited. It can be used to:

Guard federal buildings
Ensure the operation of federal functions (like the mail or agency offices)
Protect federal employees doing their jobs

But it does not allow troops to arrest protesters, patrol neighborhoods, enforce curfews, or suppress demonstrations. Those actions would likely violate the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits using the military for civilian law enforcement unless specifically authorized by statute.

Marines are Now in Motion

This is no longer theoretical. As of Monday, June 9, 700 active-duty U.S. Marines have been formally ordered to deploy to Los Angeles, according to a U.S. defense official. These troops are from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, stationed at Twentynine Palms, California—the same unit that had been on “prepared to deploy” status over the weekend.

This is the first confirmed movement of active-duty military forces into Los Angeles in response to the protests—despite no invocation of the Insurrection Act, no declared state of martial law, and no legitimate legal authorization for those forces to engage in civilian law enforcement.

The White House has so far avoided saying exactly what these Marines will do. When asked by ABC News whether he plans to deploy them in the streets, Trump responded: “We’ll see what happens.” He added: “I think we have it very well under control. I think it would have been a very bad situation. It was heading in the wrong direction. It’s now heading in the right direction.”

That answer—like the legal justification for their deployment—is dangerously vague. The Marines are not being sent to support humanitarian aid, disaster relief, or infrastructure repair. They are being sent in the context of peaceful protest. And they are being sent without the clearest legal tool that would allow them to do anything beyond protecting federal buildings: the Insurrection Act.

This is not normal. It’s not legal. And it’s not safe.

Moving 700 Marines into position—while refusing to say what their mission is or what authority they’ll operate under—is not about calming tensions. It’s about building the muscle for repression. It’s about making the public afraid to protest. And it’s about watching whether anyone—Congress, courts, or the people—will stop him.

Why This Legal Ground Is Dangerous

What Trump has done isn’t just legally questionable—it’s politically loaded and constitutionally reckless. He’s sidestepped California’s governor, reinterpreted limited legal authorities, and framed peaceful dissent as a threat to national order.

There is no rebellion in Los Angeles. The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, and even local law enforcement has acknowledged that. That makes Trump’s use of 10 U.S.C. § 12406 to seize control of the California National Guard an extreme—and likely unconstitutional—overreach.

The “protective power” theory he’s invoking is untested, unbounded, and never meant to justify boots on city streets. It’s a legal theory built on bureaucratic memos, not the Constitution.

Trump is the first president since the civil rights era to federalize a state’s National Guard over the objections of its governor. And now, without invoking the Insurrection Act, he has taken another step: deploying 700 active-duty Marines into a major American city under vague pretenses and no clear legal authority.

He hasn’t signed the Insurrection Act—yet. But the legal line that once separated civilian protest from military occupation is now paper-thin. And if Trump chooses to cross it, we’re not just in a political crisis. We’re in a constitutional one.

What Can Congress Do?

Congress can’t prevent Trump from invoking emergency powers—but it can investigate, constrain, and push back.

Here’s what we need them to do:

Hold oversight hearings immediately. Investigate the deployment. Investigate ICE’s conduct. Subpoena the memo and internal legal guidance. Every federal official involved in this lawless escalation must be held to account.
Back California. Encourage and support legal challenges from the state government, civil rights defenders, or SEIU over Huerta’s arrest and federal overreach.
Prepare to meet this moment with the full force of your office. Trump will not stop with California, and intends to instigate similar escalations in other states and cities. Be ready to defend the rights of your constituents courageously.
Join us in the streets for mass, popular, nonviolent protest of this administration’s authoritarian power grabs. Your physical presence at peaceful demonstrations, your voice speaking with moral clarity, and you bearing witness to this administration threatening our rights and dignity are sorely needed.

What Can Governors Do?

Each state’s National Guard is under the direction of the governor. They are most often deployed for things like election security, disaster response, or other crises. When they are under state control, the National Guard can participate in domestic law enforcement activities, like crowd control or responding to civil unrest.

However, once a state’s Guard is “federalized,” it can no longer be deployed for domestic law enforcement activity unless laws like the Insurrection Act are invoked. That distinction is critical, as Trump would love nothing more than a large militarized law enforcement presence that reports to him.

It’s also critical to point out that Governors have few tools to prevent the federal government from activating the state’s National Guard. If they are “federalized,” that supersedes any other orders the National Guard had been given by their state’s governor. So, what can governors do?

Governors can:

File lawsuits to contest the rationale that the federal government uses for federalizing or deploying the National Guard in their states.
Refuse to direct the National Guard to conduct law enforcement duties.
Document and publicize the peaceful and nonviolent nature of protests in their states to undermine Trump’s claims of “riots.”
Work closely with state and local law enforcement to deescalate, avoid street conflicts, and avoid giving Trump an excuse to intervene.
Fiercely defend the rights of residents in their states to peacefully exercise their rights to free speech and public expression.

Here are two actions you can take:

What We Do Next: Continue to Fight Back

What We Do Next: Continue to Fight Back

Trump wants this moment to break us. To scare us. To divide us. But this movement was made for moments like this.

On Saturday, June 14, we rose. In cities and towns across the country, we took to the streets in powerful, mass mobilizations, with more than 2,100 events and over 5 million participants, to say clearly and defiantly: No Kings. We will not be ruled.

Trump tried, and continues, to provoke a crisis. He wants to justify greater crackdowns. We didn’t give him the excuse on June 14th, and we refuse to move forward.

Bottom Line

This isn’t about protecting buildings. It’s about suppressing protest.

Trump is bending obscure laws and old legal theories to justify a military response to peaceful dissent. He’s arresting labor leaders. He’s bringing in Marines. And he’s trying to see how far he can go before someone stops him.

So we stop him. We show up. We stay nonviolent. We speak with one voice. And we say: No Kings.