National Guard rehearsed show of force against immigration raid protesters, general testifies

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — National Guard troops repeatedly rehearsed their role in an operation at a Los Angeles park intended as a show of force against undocumented people and those protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, a deputy commanding general testified Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, who commanded Guard troops in Los Angeles, was testifying at a trial to determine whether the Trump administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act when it deployed the soldiers and U.S. Marines to Southern California this summer. The 1878 law generally prohibits a president from using the military to police domestic affairs.

Sherman said the deployment of federal agents on horseback and on foot to MacArthur Park in a neighborhood with a large immigrant population was initially planned for Father’s Day, June 15. But the operation was moved to July 7 after he raised concerns the park could be crowded, he said.

“We assessed that there could be a large amount of people in the park (on Father’s Day), which could quickly overwhelm Border Patrol,” Sherman testified.

Sherman said the decision to shift the timing of the operation came after discussion among the National Guard, the U.S. Northern Command, the Border Patrol, Department of Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth and Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

The Guard troops were deployed to protect the perimeter and were instructed only to exit their vehicles if there was a direct threat to federal agents, he said.

All troops remained in their vehicles during the brief but mighty show of force. Sherman said the operation took just 20 minutes because it had been rehearsed multiple times. The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t said if anyone was arrested.

Sherman testified during the second day of a three-day trial on whether President Donald Trump’s deployment of 4,700 armed forces to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids this summer violated the Posse Comitatus Act. All but about 300 Guard troops have since left Los Angeles.

Sherman testified that he also raised concerns that military vehicles would be stationed along Wilshire Boulevard, which traverses the park, instead of staying in the perimeter during the so-called “Operation Excalibur.”

After he raised his concerns, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector chief in charge of the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, questioned his loyalty, Sherman told the court Monday.

On July 7, federal agents, many of them in tactical gear, walked and rode their horses around the park, which was nearly empty because word had spread of a potential raid.

LA Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom called it a political stunt and spectacle meant to intimidate the city’s immigrant communities.

Trump has pushed the bounds of typical military activity on domestic soil, including through the creation of militarized zones along the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, the president said he was deploying the National Guard across Washington, D.C., and taking over the city’s police department in hopes of reducing crime, even as the mayor has noted crime is falling in the nation’s capital.

California is asking Judge Charles Breyer to order the Trump administration to return control of the remaining troops to the state and to stop the federal government from using military troops in California “to execute or assist in the execution of federal law or any civilian law enforcement functions by any federal agent or officer.”

Troops were in LA to provide security, US lawyer says

Eric Hamilton, a deputy assistant attorney general, said in his closing statement Tuesday that the troops did not break the Posse Comitatus Act because they were not enforcing federal law and were deployed “for a purely protective function.”

“The president federalized guardsmen and also deployed the Marines after multiple days of violent attacks on federal law enforcement officers and federal property. The deployment was a response to that violence and a recognition that federal law-enforcement officers and federal buildings needed additional protection,” Hamilton said.

California says Trump administration broke the law

California Deputy Attorney General Meghan Strong told the court the Trump administration the troops went beyond providing protection to federal agents and federal buildings. The troops, she said, set up roadblocks and perimeters that restricted civilian movement, blocked access to public streets, detained civilians and engaged in a militaristic display of force in a public park.

The Trump administration, she said, broke the law and used the army to illegally enforce civilian law, and operate as a single force with federal immigration officers who often don military garb.

“Defendants have used that army to pervade the activities of civilian law enforcement and strike fear into the hearts of Californians,” Strong said. “In doing so, defendants have disregarded America’s deep-rooted policy against military execution of the laws and the Posse Comitatus Act prohibitions.”