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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s suggestion that he could send U.S. Marines to quell anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement riots in Los Angeles would not be a heavy-handed approach.
In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Johnson was asked to respond to President Donald Trump sending in National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
Trump said he would pursue the federal government taking control of the California National Guard if Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass “can’t do their jobs” to protect Los Angeles against rioting and looting.
“I have no concern about that at all,” Johnson told ABC host Jonathan Karl. “I think the president did exactly what he needed to do. These are federal laws and we have to maintain the rule of law, and that is not what is happening. Gavin Newsom has shown an inability or an unwillingness to do what is necessary there, so the president stepped in. That’s real leadership, and he has the authority and the responsibility to do it.”
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Karl also asked about a message posted by Hegseth, who wrote on X Saturday that the Department of Defense was mobilizing the National Guard “IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angles,” and “if the violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized – they are on high alert.”
“One of our core principles is maintaining peace through strength,” Johnson said in response Sunday. “We do that on foreign affairs and domestic affairs as well. I don’t think that’s heavy-handed. I think that’s an important signal….”
“You don’t think sending the Marines into the streets of an American city is heavy-handed?” Karl interjected.
“We have to be prepared to do what is necessary, and I think the notice that that might happen might have the deterring effect,” Johnson said.
Newsom responded to Hegseth’s threat on X, writing: “The Secretary of Defense is now threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens. This is deranged behavior.”
“Deranged = allowing your city to burn & law enforcement to be attacked,” Hegseth hit back Sunday morning. “There is plenty of room for peaceful protest, but ZERO tolerance for attacking federal agents who are doing their job.”
“The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” the defense secretary added.
In his initial message Saturday, Hegseth said, “The violent mob assaults on ICE and Federal Law Enforcement are designed to prevent the removal of Criminal Illegal Aliens from our soil; a dangerous invasion facilitated by criminal cartels (aka Foreign Terrorist Organizations) and a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK. Under President Trump, violence & destruction against federal agents & federal facilities will NOT be tolerated. It’s COMMON SENSE.”
Generally, the U.S. military is not allowed to carry out civilian law enforcement duties against U.S. citizens except in times of emergency.
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An 18th-century wartime law called the Insurrection Act is the main legal mechanism that a president can use to activate the military or National Guard during times of rebellion or unrest. But Trump didn’t invoke the Insurrection Act on Saturday.
Instead, the president’s memorandum called “into Federal service members and units of the National Guard under 10 U.S.C. 12406 to temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations.”
The federal law cited in the memo allows the president to federalize National Guard troops under three circumstances: When the U.S. is invaded or in danger of invasion; when there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government, or when the president is unable to “execute the laws of the United States,” with regular forces. But the law also says that orders for those purposes “shall be issued through the governors of the States.”
The National Guard is a hybrid entity that serves both state and federal interests.
It’s not immediately clear if the president can activate National Guard troops without the order of that state’s governor.
It’s also not clear if military personnel can be deployed.
Under the Posse Comitatus Act, troops under federal orders cannot be used for domestic law enforcement, but units under state control can. Enacted in the late 1800s during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War, the federal law limits the powers of the federal government to deploy the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement reasons “except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.”
Trump threatened to use the Insurrection Act during the height of 2020 rioting in the wake of George Floyd’s death, but ultimately did not do so. He did deploy federal agents to several U.S. cities, including Portland, where rioters attempted to breach a federal courthouse, clashing with law enforcement officers and targeting the building with Molotov cocktails and other projectiles for over 100 consecutive nights.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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