Lawmakers divided along party lines in their views of whether U.S. military forces should deploy to quell protests even over the objections of a governor.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump placed under federal control some 2,000 National Guard troops in California in response to occasionally violent protests there against Trump’s crackdown on immigrants. Roughly 300 of the 2,000 National Guard members arrived in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Trump deployed the troops under Title 10 of the U.S. code, which allows the president to place National Guard troops under federal command under certain circumstances, including a threat of rebellion. The order does not limit the deployment’s potential location to California. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll confirmed in testimony last week that the service was weighing a request from the Department of Homeland Security to make 20,000 Guardsmen available for immigration enforcement.
