Judge orders Trump administration to return California National Guard to state control

The U.S. Authorities must block deploying the ca subject ward 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 the state's National Guard troops without Gov. Gavin Newsom's approval.

Breyer also put the decision on hold until Monday to give the White House time to respond to the court.

An email to the White House seeking comment on Wednesday's ruling was not immediately returned.

"Donald Trump diverted these brave men and women from their vital public safety operations and deployed them against the very communities they took an oath to serve," Newsom said in a social media post on X. "Today’s ruling is unmistakably clear: the federalization of the California National Guard must end."

California argued that conditions in Los Angeles had changed since June when Trump first took command of the troops, citing immigration enforcement requirements. The administration initially called up more than 4,000 California National Guard troops, but that number had dropped to several hundred by late October.

Only about 100 troops remain in the Los Angeles area, with several hundred Marines who were also deployed eventually recalled after several weeks.

The Republican administration extended the deployment until February while also trying to use California Guard members in Portland, Ore.

U.S. Justice Department lawyers said the administration still needed Guard members in the Los Angeles area to help protect federal personnel and property.

Trump's call-up was the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, and it marked a significant escalation in the administration's efforts to carry out its mass deportation policy. The troops were stationed outside a federal detention centre in downtown Los Angeles, where protesters gathered, and later sent on the streets to protect immigration officers as they made arrests.

California has argued 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. Outside of the court battle, Newsom complained that some of the National Guard members were those often called upon to assist in the state's annual battle with wildfires.

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 characterized that expansive interpretation in his ruling as "shocking."

"The founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances. Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one," Breyer said, referring to the Trump administration.

Breyer, the brother of former U.S. Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer, ruled in September after a brief trial that the deployment itself violated the law.

Other judges have blocked the administration from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Ore., and Chicago.

The Trump administration has mostly targeted cities led by municipal officials who are Democrats. Officials from those cities have pushed back on claims of rampant crime and disorder, pointing to downward trends in violent crime that had spiked in the first two years of the pandemic.

The deployments have taken place even as National Guard members are prohibited by law from carrying out law enforcement functions by the Posse Comitatus Act.

In the case of California, some of the more violent incidents from the stepped-up deportation efforts of unauthorized persons have occurred far from the Los Angeles city centre.

Migrant patients in Los Angeles are scared to seek medical care, says nurse

In May, protests occurred in San Diego after flashbangs and assault rifles were used in an immigration raid at an Italian restaurant.

In June, a worker died after falling nine metres from a greenhouse roof in Camarillo, Calif., while trying to flee a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid. Jaime Alanís, the victims, was believed to be in his mid-50s.

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