Washington and New York. Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of the Marines—an elite force historically used as a vanguard in invasions and interventions by other countries—to the streets of Los Angeles to support the National Guard troops deployed since Sunday, intensifying his repression of protests in that region of California following high-profile anti-immigrant raids that began on Friday.
The Marines will not be directly involved in law enforcement activities for now, and their exact role has not been detailed. The armed forces cannot participate in police activities, but the president is threatening to invoke the so-called Insurrection Act—an 1807 law that would allow the military to be used to suppress violence that is classified as rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government.
For now, with this decision, Trump has escalated his confrontation with the country's largest Democratic state and is on the verge of generating a potential constitutional crisis over his power to act in what would be an act of repression on the streets of the United States.
The White House has wavered in its message about who it calls the"threat" to the United States, justifying the deployment of National Guard troops and even threatening to send in the Marines. On the one hand, it continues to attack criminal foreign"invaders" and, on the other, the"radical left" and "paid" instigators. It also includes among its enemies Democratic governors, legislators, and mayors who oppose and criticize the measures.
"It was a great decision," Trump praised himself on Monday regarding the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles. He stated on social media that if he hadn't done so to confront the"violent and instigated riots... Los Angeles would have been obliterated," and condemned the inaction and ingratitude of California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles.
On Sunday night, Trump announced on social media that he had ordered the Department of Homeland Security, his Secretary of Defense, and his Attorney General to"take all necessary action to free Los Angeles from the migrant invasion and end the migrant riots. Order will be restored, illegal immigrants will be removed, and Los Angeles will be free." Today, he sent another message, this time on his campaign account, warning of"an attack on the homeland," both referring to the protests in Los Angeles and justifying the implementation of his travel ban against a dozen countries.
A day earlier, he justified the deployment of National Guard troops by calling the protests in Los Angeles"a rebellion," invoking a provision in a law that allows him to do so without consulting governors in the event of "a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the United States government."
Apparently, according to the official version, the protests against"authority" are the work of some combination of "radical leftists" and "migrant invaders."
For their part, California Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, along with lawmakers representing that region, denounce the riots, violent confrontations, and more as being fueled by the maneuvers of the White House and its federal forces. Newsom announced his intention to file a lawsuit against the president alleging his “abuse of power” and “unconstitutional” act in deploying the National Guard without the governor's authorization—22 Democratic governors share that criticism. “There is no invasion. There is no rebellion,” declared California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
"The president is attempting to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political purposes," he added, announcing the lawsuit against Trump.
For now, no one knows whether Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops—a hybrid military entity under shared command between governors and the president—is not only another step in militarizing anti-immigrant operations, but also the first step in militarizing the repression of those who dare to protest these and other measures of the new administration in Washington.
“If they manage to forcefully suppress the response in Los Angeles, imagine the message and the implications for the rest of the country,” Dr. Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, director of the Cross-Border Solidarity Program at the University of California, Los Angeles Labor Center and a strategist for immigrant and labor movements, told La Jornada.
Tom Homan, the so-called"border czar," repeated Saturday that anyone who opposes federal agents' operations is committing a felony and will be subject to arrest, including Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass. Newsom responded by saying,"Let's see if Homan dares." Trump, asked today about the governor challenging Homan to arrest him, replied,"I would. I think it's great."
It's worth remembering that the Trump administration has previously arrested the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and at least one immigration judge in Minneapolis, both for resisting and/or obstructing the detention of migrants by federal agents.
The use of the National Guard in anti-immigrant operations had already been reported three weeks ago, when the Department of Homeland Security requested 20,000 troops from that service. Last week, it was confirmed that the Trump administration was developing plans to use these forces for"nighttime" operations, immigrant"interdiction," "fugitive location," as well as "riot control," among other tasks in support of immigration enforcement agents, National Public Radio reported.
In Los Angeles, the arrival of National Guard troops continued, totaling 2,000 as ordered by Trump, while they await the arrival of their new colleagues, the Marines.
