Guard Deployments to U.S. Cities Face Legal Challenges

What Happened?

President Trump’s federalization of several state National Guard forces faces legal hurdles in the U.S. court system. A federal judge whom Mr. Trump appointed ruled that federalizing the National Guard for deployment to Portland, Oregon, was illegal because there was no basis for the action. The Trump Administration has appealed the decision and vowed to continue with the deployment.

Guard deployments to Chicago have also faced legal challenges from the Governor of Illinois, and the outcome of that dispute has yet to be ruled on by the courts. The Trump Administration has deployed or attempted to deploy federalized guard troops to several U.S. cities in the past few months. 

Why it Matters

U.S. law has specific provisions for when the President may legally federalize state National Guard troops. If there are challenges to federal authority, such as an insurrection or disruptions to the operation of the U.S. government, then guard forces may be federalized and deployed under the command of the President. However, none of the current locations sought for deployment appear to meet those conditions. 

For example, Portland, Oregon, had seen a brief disruption to one of the buildings where Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE) work due to public protests, but that disruption ended months ago, and operations have not been halted since.

There have been protests held near federal buildings, and the vandalization of federal buildings in Portland, but those responsible were arrested by local police and booked for prosecution. Portland police claimed to have the situation under control, and that appears to be a credible assessment.

Chicago has not seen any disruptions to federal operations, nor has there been anything close to an insurrection. Like most major cities, Chicago does have a significant crime problem, but crimefighting by itself is not one of the legal authorizations for federalizing guard troops. The recent federal raid on an apartment complex in Chicago, where ICE agents rappelled from helicopters wearing body armor and carrying long guns, looked like what we would have called a tactical assault operation in Iraq.

Critics of the Trump Administration's use of guard troops have decried the actions as an authoritarian takeover of cities, but the number of troops used doesn’t justify that assessment. For example, the Chicago guard force is approximately three hundred, nowhere near enough to take control of a city of nearly ten million people. Similar ratios of troops to citizens can be found in Portland and the District of Columbia.

How it Affects You

The 4^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, and excessive force is by definition unreasonable. The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the 4^th Amendment applies to undocumented immigrants. While several U.S. presidents have deployed federalized guard troops before, there is no precedent for these types of forces being used in so many cities simultaneously.