Updated June 9, 2025 at 5:57 PM CDT
President Trump announced Saturday that 2,000 California National Guard troops would be sent to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. The move follows two days of unrest after an ICE-led immigration crackdown, with demonstrations also taking place in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized the deployment as unnecessary and "inflaming tensions."
Trump's move marks the first time since the 1960s that the federal government has activated National Guard troops without a governor's consent, a significant break from long-standing protocol.
As the story continues to develop, NPR's Morning Edition spoke with William Enyart, a former Democratic congressman and retired general who led the Illinois National Guard from 2007 to 2012, about the constitutional and military implications.
Enyart described the decision to use National Guard troops to quell the protests as unprecedented, saying, "They've thrown the entire playbook out."
In his conversation with NPR's A Martinez, Enyart raised core concerns over Trump's use of the Guard, including the erosion of local control, the lack of an overwhelming threat and the politicization of military force on U.S. soil.
Here's a summary of the key answers from the interview.
How do laws governing the National Guard work?
Normally, the decision to deploy the National Guard comes from the ground up: Local officials determine if they're overwhelmed, alert the governor, and then request troops.
Enyart details that this layered process exists for a reason, since those protocols are built on local knowledge of the threat, resources, and community needs.
"The process is that the local chief executive, whether it be a mayor or a county supervisor, is the person who makes the decision whether local law enforcement is overwhelmed or not, and then that local chief executive notifies the governor of the state and requests that the National Guard be sent in. Why does it work that way? It works that way because the people on the ground know what the situation is," Enyart said.
By skirting local and state knowledge, Enyart added that "the President is imposing his political will here, not any kind of local knowledge as to what the situation actually is."
What is the National Guard available to do?
Most National Guard troops are trained for natural disasters, not protests, Enyart explains. Missions focused on protest control are unpopular and outside their primary role, adding strain on the Guard.
"The National Guard has been used for so many things over the last 30 years in Illinois, we were happy to be called out for blizzards, we were happy to be called out for tornadoes. We were happy to be called out for floods... But the guard does not particularly like to be called in to do civil disturbance. Why? we're not trained for it. At best, a National Guard soldier gets four hours of training a year to do civil disturbance operations."
What's wrong with using presidential powers to protect federal officers?
While the President technically can protect federal personnel, Enyart says that's not how the Guard is supposed to be used, especially when local police are fully capable.
Federal deployment without local consent ignores the chain of accountability built into domestic operations.
"You do not call the National Guard in until such time as local resources are overwhelmed or no longer able to control the situation, and you have the consent and the request of the local authorities, including the governor. Trump has entirely disregarded this," Enyart explained.
Is the scale of the protests a valid justification?
The administration cited the number of demonstrators as a reason for the deployment, but Enyart questions the threat level. Even if the number of protesters was in the hundreds, he says, that does not justify activating military support in a major city like Los Angeles.
"Call it 600. Okay, 600 protesters is hardly a revolution. 600 protesters is not going to overwhelm the 8,000 police officers that Los Angeles has as well as all the federal folks who are on the ground," Enyart said. He also added that the deployment decision may be more about shifting attention from other issues.
"The President is doing this to remove the debate from his horrendous tax bill... and taking attention away from the fact that... soybean prices... were about $19.50 a bushel. Today, under Trump's tariff plan, they're $10.58," Enyart said.
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