California to sue Trump over National Guard deployment in Los Angeles unrest

LOS ANGELES - California is suing the Trump administration for deploying the state’s National Guard in Los Angeles to quell unrest over the president’s immigration raids.

The move, announced at a press conference June 9, follows tensions over anti-deportation protests. Demonstrators have clashed with law enforcement, sometimes violently, while Governor Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump trade blame over the responsibility for restoring order. The lawsuit hasn’t yet appeared on the court docket.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilising California National Guard troops,” California Attorney-General Rob Bonta said at the conference.

The strife escalated into the night of June 8, as some demonstrators committed vandalism and violence, including burning cars. LA Police Chief Jim McDonnell said that many of the earlier protesters around the city had been peaceful but that conditions had deteriorated as others replaced daytime demonstrators.

“This violence that I’ve seen is disgusting,” Mr McDonnell said at a press conference on June 8.

Mr Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have accused President Donald Trump of making the situation worse by deploying hundreds of National Guard troops. The governor said he’s formally asked the White House to rescind what he called an “unlawful” order federalising the troops.

“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalise the National Guard,” Mr Newsom posted June 9 on X. “The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him.”

Demonstrations 

The president has called the demonstrations “migrant riots” and said on his Truth Social platform that federal agencies were to take

“all such action necessary” to continue the operations

. He has suggested Mr Newsom should be arrested. A sweeping deportation was a hallmark of Mr Trump’s presidential campaign.

Mr Newsom has said order must be restored but that the scale of the violence didn’t warrant federalising the California National Guard. Before filing the suit, he said he had formally asked the White House to retract the “unlawful” deployment and return the troops to his command, warning it would only inflame tensions.

Mr Trump has directed the US Northern Command to assume control of the National Guard and dispatch 2,000 soldiers to the area “for 60 days or at the discretion of the secretary of defense,” the White House said. So far, about 300 soldiers have been deployed to three locations in greater LA, according to the Northern Command. 

In calling up the troops, Mr Trump issued a proclamation saying the protests “constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States.” He invoked a law giving the president authority to use the National Guard when there is a “rebellion or danger of rebellion” against the country or when he’s “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”

At June 9’s press conference, Mr Bonta said “it is a rarely used and invoked section of the law, but the language is clear in the law. One, you need to have a rebellion. There’s no rebellion.” He added, “Or two, you need to have an invasion. There’s no invasion. Three, you need to be unable, with the regular forces, to execute the laws of the United States.” BLOOMBERG