President Trump called out the National Guard, which deployed some 4,000 troops, as well as 700 Marines to help restore order.
Normally, that’s the job of state governors, but California governor Newsom did not want Trump’s intervention, resulting in a back-and-forth court battle that for the moment left Trump in control.
Under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 (“power of the county”), the military may not be used for civilian law enforcement purposes, but with some exceptions. The Trump administration has invoked the law against “seditious conspiracy,” which, as Andrew McCarthy points out, allows for such intervention,
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.
The troops are reportedly being used to guard the federal building that is the locus of many of the protests, as well as to protect federal ICE agents. They have no arrest powers, though they can detain individuals, they must turn them over to local police.
But Gov. Newsom is describing Trump’s sending troops to quell the protests as the advent of dictatorship. He stated,
‘This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.’
More immigration protests are breaking out in other cities, but progressives are bradening the cause. Already, in addition to flying Mexican flags, some protesters have been waving Palestinian flags. Now “No Kings” rallies, accusing Trump of trying to rule as a king, are being planned in all 50 states.
Progressive states and cities have a track record of letting left-wing riots run their course, as they did during the George Floyd riots, even in cases of large-scale arson, looting, and assaults. Gov. Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass are sympathetic to the illegal immigrants–Los Angeles is a “sanctuary city”–though the city police and highway patrol have been arresting violent demonstrators. This is doubtless why Trump moved so quickly.
Progressives have been wanting Democrats to “do something” about Trump, so they are rallying around Gov. Newsom as the leader they have been hoping for.
But doesn’t the left see that rioting, looting, and stoning law enforcement agents only confirms for the general public that the illegal immigrants need to be deported?
Are large-scale protests ever effective in changing people’s minds? I came across some research that found that which ever side employs violence turns the public against them and their cause. During the Civil Rights Movement, demonstrators under the leadership of Martin Luther King, who turned non-violence into a tactic, were very effective in swaying the public, especially when the peaceful protesters were met by violent police with fire-hoses and billy clubs. But when protesters were the violent ones, as in the Watts riots, public opinion turned against them.
Nevertheless, as NBC reports, protests that start as peaceful are being taken over by “revolutionaries”–Antifa, Marxists, Jihadists–who openly call for and celebrate destruction, looting, and assassination.
Photo: California National Guard in front of protestors (9 June 2025) by U.S. Northern Command – https://x.com/USNorthernCmd/status/1932256787626860604, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=167354134
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