War in Southern California neighborhoods
Donald Trump federalizes the California National Guard
Note: Naked Capitalism has an account of the violence apparently provoked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Los Angeles area at https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/trump-administration-violating-yet-more-individual-rights-in-escalation-over-ice-raid-protests-in-los-angeles.html.[1] See updates through June 13, 2025, at end of post.
I remember, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, seeing fully armed troops on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was, to say the least, an unsettling sight on the opposite side of the country from where those attacks occurred.
The logic was clear enough: There was a fear of attacks on infrastructure—a collapse of the Golden Gate Bridge would remove a major highway route and likely block maritime access to a major port—following 9/11.
In a way, those days have returned, not in the San Francisco Bay Area, but in Southern California, where apparently some but not all protests against Donald Trump’s unconstitutional immigration raids have turned destructive, Trump is deploying 2,000 federalized National Guard troops under—with Trump, is it ever otherwise?—a novel and strained legal authority.[2] Qasim Rashid writes that with this, fascism has arrived in the U.S.[3]
The troops’ stated mission is to protect federal authorities and property while they conduct warrantless raids for unauthorized migrants labeled “alien enemies.” The Posse Comitatus Act is meant to prevent troops from participating in civil law enforcement activities[4] so I have little doubt this will be in the courts soon enough and presumably appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court.
But for neighbors in Southern California, it won’t just be troops on the Golden Gate Bridge, strolling about. They’ll be at least accompanying Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on raids.
That’ll be better reason to feel disturbed than I had.
Update, June 9, 2025: California has sued Donald Trump over the deployment of California National Guard troops[5] even as Trump ups the ante by deploying a Marine Corps battalion to join the National Guard.[6]Aaron Blake comments on the discrepancy between the Trump administration’s use of the term ‘insurrection’ today versus on January 6, 2021.[7]
Update, June 13, 2025: A federal court struck down the deployment of federal troops in the Los Angeles area as a broad overreach of presidential power only for an appeals court to stay the ruling.[8]
[1] Yves Smith [Susan Webber], “Trump Administration Violating Yet More Individual Rights in Escalation Over ICE Raid Protests in Los Angeles,” Naked Capitalism, June 9, 2025, https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/trump-administration-violating-yet-more-individual-rights-in-escalation-over-ice-raid-protests-in-los-angeles.html
[2] Justin Jouvenal and Alex Horton, Trump charts new territory in bypassing Newsom to deploy National Guard,” Washington Post, June 8, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/08/trump-national-guard-la-protests-law/; Qasim Rashid, “Trump Is Deploying the Military on Americans,” Let’s Address This with Qasim Rashid, June 8, 2025, https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/trump-is-deploying-the-military-on
[3] Qasim Rashid, “Trump Is Deploying the Military on Americans,” Let’s Address This with Qasim Rashid, June 8, 2025, https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/trump-is-deploying-the-military-on
[4] Justin Jouvenal and Alex Horton, Trump charts new territory in bypassing Newsom to deploy National Guard,” Washington Post, June 8, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/06/08/trump-national-guard-la-protests-law/; Qasim Rashid, “Trump Is Deploying the Military on Americans,” Let’s Address This with Qasim Rashid, June 8, 2025, https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/trump-is-deploying-the-military-on
[5] Yves Smith [Susan Webber], “Trump Administration Violating Yet More Individual Rights in Escalation Over ICE Raid Protests in Los Angeles,” Naked Capitalism, June 9, 2025, https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/trump-administration-violating-yet-more-individual-rights-in-escalation-over-ice-raid-protests-in-los-angeles.html; Patrick Svitek, “California sues Trump over National Guard deployment to Los Angeles,” Washington Post, June 9, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/06/09/california-newsom-trump-lawsuit-national-guard/
[6] Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky, “About 700 Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests,” Cable News Network, June 9, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/09/politics/marines-mobilized-los-angeles-protests
[7] Aaron Blake, “Trump’s broad definition of ‘insurrection’ looms over Los Angeles,” Cable News Network, June 9, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/09/politics/insurrection-trump-los-angeles-analysis
[8] Caroline O'Donovan et al., “Appeals court says Trump can keep California National Guard deployed for now,” Washington Post, June 13, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/06/12/newsom-trump-court-ruling-military-la/?location=alert