California Governor Gavin Newsom urgently appealed to a federal judge on Tuesday and requested an immediate order barring the National Guard and Marines deployed in response to the Los Angeles protests from joining in immigration raids, saying such operations could be slated to begin any moment.
In a filing in a California federal court, the state said the Trump administration intends “to use unlawfully federalized National Guard troops and Marines to accompany federal immigration enforcement officers on raids throughout Los Angeles.”
“Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California,” the filing continued. “They must be stopped, immediately.”
The request claimed that state officials learned between June 9 and 10 that the administration plans to use the 4,000 federalized National Guard members in Los Angeles to accompany immigration agents on operations in the community, fulfilling roles like “holding a secure perimeter” and “securing routes over public streets where immigration enforcement officers would travel.”
Elsewhere in the request, the state suggested the 700 deployed Marines could join in the effort, with both forces having the potential to “physically interact with or detain civilians.”
If such operations begin to take place, they would represent a major development, given the high firewalls keeping the military from domestic law enforcement-type roles against Americans in all but the most emergency circumstances.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
