Far-left Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom will sue the Trump administration to stop its federalizing the National Guard to quell what President Trump is calling an insurrection in Los Angeles.
The insurrectionists attacked federal immigration and other agents, and then local police, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested illegal-alien rapists, murderers, and other criminals.
But whatever the merits of Newsom’s lawsuit, what Trump might do next — declare an insurrection — could well end it.
Why Trump Federalized the Guard
Trump federalized the Guard on Saturday in a memorandum to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security (DHS) counterpart Kristi Noem. Noting that rioters were in “rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States,” he federalized 2,000 Guardsmen.
On Friday, “over 1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, [and] defaced buildings … and taxpayer funded property. It took the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) 2 hours to respond,” DHS reported.
They noted that attacks on federal agents have increased more than 400 percent.
DHS reported the arrest of 118 illegals in the city that week, including those with the following “criminal histories”:
- Drug trafficking
- Assault
- Cruelty to children
- Domestic violence
- Robbery
- Alien smuggling
The DHS statement continued:
These riots in Los Angeles and increased assaults on ICE officers come after Democrat politicians, including [Congressman] Hakeem Jeffries, Mayor [Michelle] Wu of Boston, [Minnesota Governor] Tim Walz, and Mayor [Karen] Bass of Los Angeles, have villainized and demonized ICE law enforcement.
One prominent voice DHS missed is former Vice President Kamala Harris, who sided with rioters and accused Trump of “stoking fear.”
Trump has twice called the rioters “insurrectionists,” the first time yesterday at about noon.
“Violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations — But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve,” he wrote:
I am directing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in coordination with all other relevant Departments and Agencies, to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots. Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free.
Today, Trump warned “insurrectionists” that “if they spit, we hit.”
Trump’s language, far-left “migrant” boosters worry, along with the federalization of the Guard and the deployment of 700 U.S. Marines, suggests that he might declare such riots a rebellion or insurrection. That would permit him to sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using military forces inside the United States.
The Insurrection Act is 10 U.S. Code 252:
Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.
History of Invoking the Act
Far-left pro-illegal-alien activists suggest that invoking the act would be too extreme a reaction to quell the murderous attacks on local police and federal agents, whose constitutional duty includes enforcing federal immigration laws.
But Trump would be far from alone. Presidents have invoked the act some 30 times, sometimes illegitimately. The first were Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln. The most recent was President George H.W. Bush, who invoked it to quell riots in Los Angeles in 1992. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson invoked it to desegregate schools and suppress race riots.
Former DHS official Ken Cuccinelli informed CNN’s Brianna Keilar that Trump should indeed invoke the act.
“Are you saying that it’s really just a matter of if they don’t have enough Guard, then they can go ahead and deploy active duty military like these Marines [who] have been readied, and that’s okay because of the Insurrection Act?” Keiler asked.
Replied Cuccinelli: “That’s exactly what the Insurrection Act says.”
Retired Army colonel and combat veteran Douglas Macgregor urged Trump to invoke the act because illegal aliens threaten the nation. One benefit if Trump listens to Macgregor: U.S. troops maintaining the unconstitutional American Empire abroad would return home.
“Given the size and scope of what is coming POTUS MUST ACT NOW to bring back ALL US GROUND FORCES FROM overseas and employ them at home to restore the rule of law and execute mass deportations,” Macgregor wrote:
He must also mobilize the Army National Guard and federalize all of our law enforcement.
This is the War Americans must fight and win if our country is to survive.
Federalizing “all of our law enforcement” is unnecessary and unconstitutional. But the president takes an oath to “faithfully execute” immigration laws.
Local and state officials have repeatedly vowed rebellion and insurrection to stop deportations. Most notably, far-left Denver Mayor Mike Johnston warned that police and 50,000 Denverites would cordon off the city to stop ICE from arresting and deporting illegals — i.e., enforcing federal immigration laws.
