The Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff have sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, requesting a detailed breakdown of military deployments in Los Angeles in the midst of the recent protests of immigration application in the city.
The two California Democrats wrote on Monday that they wanted to know how thousands of national guard troops and Marines of the United States were used specifically, either and how they participated in any police activity and how much the deployments have cost the taxpayers to date.
The deployments were made about the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and other local officials, and caused a lawsuit by the State claiming that they were illegal. The letter occurred only a few hours before a federal judge agreed with the State in a ruling on Tuesday that Padilla and Schiff cheered.
Padilla and Schiff wrote that the deployments were unnecessary and that more details were needed in the light of similar operations that are now launched or threatened in other US cities.
“The use of the US army to help or support immigration operations remains inappropriate, potentially a violation of the law and harmful to the relationship between the American public and the United States army,” they wrote.
The Department of Defense refused to comment on the letter to the Times, saying that “he would respond directly” to Padilla and Schiff.
President Trump ordered the federalization of some 4,100 national guard troops in California in June, since Los Angeles's protests exploded on the immigration policies of his administration. Some 700 Marines also deployed in the city. Since then, most of those forces have gone, but Padilla and Schiff said that 300 guard troops remain activated.
Trump, Hegseth and other administration leaders have previously defended the deployments as necessary to restore the law and order in Los Angeles, defend federal buildings and protect federal immigration agents while making immigration raids in local communities opposed to such application efforts.
Under the interrogation of the members of the Congress at the beginning of the deployments in June, Hegseth and other defense officials estimated that the mission would last 60 days and that the basic needs such as travel, housing and food for troops would cost around $ 134 million. However, the Administration has not provided updated details as the operation has continued.
Padilla and Schiff requested specific totals on the number of Troops and Marines of the California guard deployed in Los Angeles, and the details about which units were extracted and if it was brought to any guard personnel outside the State. They also asked if any other military personnel were deployed in the, and how many civilian employees of the Department of Defense were assigned to the operation.
The senators requested a description of the “specific missions” carried out by the different units deployed in the city, and for a breakdown of military personnel that directly supported the teams of the National Security Department, which would include immigration agents and customs compliance. They also asked which units were assigned to provide security in federal sites or “were placed in the waiting status outside the immediate protest or immigration application areas.”
They asked “the number of times and the relevant details for any case in which [Defense] The staff arrested, arrested any individual, police authorities exercised, or exercised the use of lethal force during the operation. “
They also requested the total cost of all work to the Department of Defense and a breakdown of costs for operation, maintenance, personal or other accounts, and asked if any financing used in the operation was diverted from other programs.
Padilla and Schiff requested that the Department of Defense provide the information before September 12.
Unless it is “expressly authorized by the Constitution or Law of Congress”, the use of military personnel for the application of civil law in the US land is prohibited by law under the POSSE Commitatus law. The 1878 law applies to American marines and to protect troops that, like those of Los Angeles, have been federalized.
In his lawsuit, California argued that the deployments were a violation of the POSSE Commitatus Law. In response, the Trump administration argued that the president has the legal authority to deploy federal troops to protect federal property and personnel, such as ICE agents.
On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled the State, finding that the deployments violated the POSSE Comitatus law. The judge suspended his mandate for 10 days, and the Trump Appel administration is expected to.
Schiff said that Trump's objective was not to guarantee security, but to create a show, “and that the ruling said that these actions were” illegal and unjustified. “
Padilla said the ruling “confirmed what we knew all the time: Trump violated the law in his effort to turn the members of the service into their own national police force.”
