A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to end its deployment of the California National Guard in Los Angeles and return control of the troops to the state. The ruling, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, grants a preliminary injunction requested by California officials who opposed the president’s use of state Guard members without the governor’s consent for immigration enforcement. The order is temporarily stayed until Monday.
California officials argued that circumstances in Los Angeles had changed since the initial deployment in June, when more than 4,000 Guard troops were called up; by late October, only around 100 remained in the area. The administration had extended the deployment until February and attempted to use California troops in Portland, Oregon, as part of a broader effort to deploy military personnel in Democratic-led cities, despite objections from local officials. Justice Department lawyers maintained that the Guard members were still needed to protect federal personnel and property. The deployment, the first in decades, initiated without a governor’s request, involved stationing troops outside a federal detention center and on city streets to support immigration enforcement during protests. California contended the president was using the Guard as a personal police force, violating laws limiting domestic military use, while the administration argued that the deployment was necessary to address violent conditions during protests. Similar legal challenges have blocked National Guard deployments in Portland and Chicago.