Trump’s Los Angeles Troop Deployment Violated Federal Law, Judge Rules

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated federal law when they deployed thousands of federalized California National Guard members and U.S. Marines to bolster immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.

US District Judge Charles Breyer found in a 52-page ruling on Tuesday that the Trump administration breached the Posse Comitatus Act, a law dating back to 1878 that bars the military from domestic policing.

“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into service in other cities across the country,” Breyer wrote, warning that such actions risked creating “a national police force with the President as its chief.”

The ruling comes as Trump weighs similar deployments in other cities. For weeks, his administration has defended the measures as necessary to protect federal agents during what it described as an aggressive immigration enforcement drive.

Breyer rejected those claims, finding that “Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act.”

In an attempt to prevent further breaches, Breyer issued an injunction barring Trump and Hegseth from ordering troops in California to perform functions ranging from arrests and interrogations to riot control and evidence collection.

However, he suspended that measure until next Friday, giving the administration time to appeal.

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