'How lawful is it?' National Guard worried about role in Trump day one plans

19 January

President-elect Donald Trump's vow to begin his mass deportation effort this week is causing "fear" and confusion among members of the National Guard, Politico reports, as GOP governors commit "to deploy the Guard if Trump asks and officials in Democratic states readying quick legal pushback."

Per the report, "certain legal guardrails exist," as "red states can activate the National Guard to help with immigration enforcement — possibly to assist federal agents — but blue states with control of their own Guard could simply refuse to go along."

However, Politico notes that "Trump also could invoke the Insurrection Act, an early 19th-century law that allows the president to use the military to enforce domestic laws."

This would allow the incoming president to skirt "parts of the federal law that prevent troops from being used for law enforcement jobs," the news outlet adds.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in an interview about the potential Guard deployment, "Our North Star is how lawful is it?”

He added, "If they are operating lawfully, there’s nothing for us to do, and the president is allowed to do that. If he’s acting unlawfully, as he did many times under Trump 1.0, we sued him over 120 times."

An ex-senior military official connected to the Guard, according to Politico, said, "I don’t want to be seen as a Gestapo. It’s important that everybody understands who they are and what they’re doing."

Politico's full report is available at this link.

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