US President Donald Trump has deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles, a rare move described as a "serious breach of state sovereignty" by the California Governor. Gavin Newsom has demanded it to be reversed immediately.
This came after Los Angeles witnessed protests during the weekend over the federal immigration raids that led to the arrest of dozens of people. With protesters blocking freeways and setting self-driving cars ablaze, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. The protests later spread across the city and even reached the towns of Paramount and Compton. The invocation of presidential powers, which remained dormant for the past several decades, marks an escalation challenging both the state authority as well as the long-established standards.
What makes the current situation grim is that the deployment of the National Guard came without any request from the governor of the state. The last time something like this happened was more than six decades ago.
When A US President Bypassed Governor To Deploy National Guard
In March 1965, then US President Lyndon B Johnson deployed the National Guard on the eve of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The Selma to Montgomery marches were organised to protest the systemic denial of voting rights to Black Americans in Alabama. Despite making up more than half of Selma's population, only a small fraction of Black residents (2 per cent) were registered to vote. This was due to discriminatory laws, literacy tests, and intimidation by local authorities.
The immediate spark for the protest was the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young Black man shot by a state trooper during a peaceful demonstration. Civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King Jr, aimed to march from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery, to demand federal protection of voting rights and to draw national attention to the violent suppression of Black voters.
The deployment was done to control the rising tensions between protestors and law enforcement officials. Interestingly, Johnson decided to protect demonstrators against violence, without any cooperation from the then state governor George Wallace, one of the US' prominent segregationists whom the president considered his political adversary.
The 1965 was the last time any US President used his limited executive authority to deploy the National Guard, bypassing the state governor.
In the majority of cases when the National Guard is activated, it comes only after the request of the state governor, since he commands the troops.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump said the California Governor and the city Mayor should apologise to the Los Angeles residents for the "absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing LA riots."
"These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!" he added.
As Newsom called the president's move an unnecessary provocation, White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said California officials "completely abdicated their responsibility" to protect the residents.
In an online fact sheet that summarises the history of the National Guard, the Council on Foreign Relations said that US Presidents "rarely federalise a state or territory's guard without the consent of the governor".
Explaining his 1965 decision, Johnson said at the time that it was to ensure the rights of American citizens "to walk peaceably and safely without injury or loss of life from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama," as per The New York Times report.
His decision came after Mr Wallace refused to issue the orders in this regard.
