Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) supports President Trump’s deployment of federal resources to quell the riots in Los Angeles, but he’s not sure what authorities Trump is relying on to deploy 700 active-duty Marines to a U.S. city.
“I don’t know the particulars on what authorities exist there but my assumption is that the administration has been looking carefully at what he can and can’t do under the law. Obviously, the 1798 Act is available to them if they choose to exercise it,” Thune said, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorizes the president during a declared war, invasion or predatory incursion to detain and deport citizens of an enemy nation.
Thune argued that a federal response was “warranted” because local authorities failed to contain property destruction and the threat of violence.
“In this case at least there were clear just failures on the part of state and local officials, which is why I think it required the president to take a federal response,” he told reporters. “There was a security situation out there that needed to be addressed and I think ultimately the president’s objective is to keep people safe.”
The Pentagon on Monday ratcheted up the federal response to immigration enforcement protests by mobilizing 700 active-duty Marines.
Trump has also deployed 4,000 National Guard soldiers to the area — doubling the 2,000 he initially mobilized.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) insist the situation was under control before the Trump administration escalated tensions by making a provocative show of force.
Newsom accused Trump of “intentionally causing chaos, terrorizing communities and endangering the principles of our great democracy.”
He said Sunday that Trump had taken over the California National Guard because “they want a spectacle.”
Bass said over the weekend that deploying the National Guard was “completely unnecessary” and would escalate tensions.
She argued that the Los Angeles Police Department was “well equipped” to handle protests of actions by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
