The Trump administration must stop deploying the California National Guard in Los Angeles and return control of the troops to the state, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction sought by California officials who opposed President Donald Trump’s extraordinary move to use state Guard troops without Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval to further Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts. But Breyer also put the decision on hold until Monday.
The administration initially called up more than 4,000 California National Guard troops but that number had dropped to several hundred by late October. About 100 Guard members remained in the Los Angeles area as of Friday, with none on the streets, according to U.S. Northern Command.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson suggested the administration would appeal, saying in a statement that it looked forward to “ultimate victory on the issue.”
“President Trump exercised his lawful authority to deploy National Guard troops to support federal officers and assets following violent riots that local leaders like Newscum refused to stop,” she said, a pejorative moniker he has used to refer to the Democratic governor.
Breyer rejected the administration’s arguments that he could not review extensions of a Guard deployment and that it still needed Guard troops in Los Angeles to carry out federal law, saying the first claim was “shocking” and the second one bordered on “misrepresentation.”
“The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances,” he wrote. “Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one.”
California argued that conditions in Los Angeles had changed since Trump first took command of the troops and deployed them in June following clashes between federal immigration officers and people protesting his stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.
The Republican administration extended the deployment until February while also trying to use California Guard members in Portland, Oregon as part of its effort to send the military into Democratic-run cities over the objections of mayors and governors. It also sent some California National Guard troops to Illinois.
In his ruling, Breyer noted attempts to use the state troops elsewhere, accusing the Trump administration of “effectively creating a national police force made up of state troops.”
U.S. Justice Department lawyers said the administration still needed Guard members in the Los Angeles area to help protect federal personnel and property.
The call up in June was the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor and marked a significant escalation in the administration’s efforts to carry out its mass deportation policy. The troops were stationed outside a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles where protesters gathered and later sent on the streets to protect immigration officers as they made arrests.
California sued, arguing that the president was using Guard members as his personal police force in violation of a law limiting the use of the military in domestic affairs. The administration said courts could not second-guess the president’s decision that violence during the protests made it impossible for him to execute U.S. laws with regular forces and reflected a rebellion, or danger of rebellion.
Breyer initially issued a temporary restraining order that required the administration to return control of the Guard members to California, but an appeals court panel put that decision on hold.
After a trial, Breyer ruled in September that the deployment violated the law.
Other judges have blocked the administration from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, and Chicago.
