Federal Troops Deploy in Los Angeles as Legal Battle Erupts Over Presidential Authority

More than 500 Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles streets during a fourth day of protests, marking the first time since the civil rights movement in 1965 that a president has federalized National Guard troops without a governor's request, sparking a constitutional showdown between President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The deployment comes as hundreds of protesters continue demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles following aggressive immigration raids that began targeting workplaces across Southern California. California has filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's authority to federalize 2,000 National Guard troops, arguing the action violated federal law requiring gubernatorial consent.

"The governor should have been involved in deploying them, and that didn't happen," said Clare Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "So the authority under which the troops were federalized has really almost never been used in this country."

The escalating crisis has drawn sharp criticism from local officials who say federal intervention was unnecessary and has complicated coordination efforts on the ground.

Unprecedented Federal Response

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell expressed concerns about the potential for confusion between federal troops and local law enforcement, according to interviews with former Marine and prosecutor John Deaton.

"This is what's unfortunate, is that you want all of your assets, both military assets and civilian assets, when I say assets, I'm talking about law enforcement personnel, to be coordinating and cooperating with each other," Deaton said. "And it appears that President Trump has sent in the Marines or ordered the Marines to go in and not necessarily given a heads up to the local law enforcement."

The deployment represents an unusual use of federal military power for domestic operations. Typically, presidents invoke the Insurrection Act when claiming an insurrection has occurred, or governors request federal assistance when local resources prove inadequate.

"More frequently, there's a request on the part of a governor saying, we can't get the situation under control. Our police are not able to be sufficiently effective here," Finkelstein explained. "Here you have a situation where the governor is not at all pleased about the federalization of his National Guard and so they are opposing that."

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