Trump Backs Off on National Guard Deployment in Three Cities

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would back off his plans to use National Guard troops in the Democratic-led cities of Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. 

The move follows the Supreme Court’s decision last week that found Trump could not deploy troops to Chicago, ruling that conditions there did not meet the criteria for the president to send in Guard members to assist with federal immigration enforcement.

Several federal judges have either blocked the deployments or found them unlawful. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally prevents the military from participating in civilian law enforcement.

“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!” Trump wrote on his social media site, TruthSocial.

The president first deployed National Guard troops earlier this summer to Los Angeles, following massive protests against immigration raids. 

He has continued to send service members to cities with Democratic leaders, a decision that has tested the legal bounds of presidential authority on military law all the way up to the Supreme Court.

An appeals court in early December ruled that the Trump administration must remove troops from Los Angeles, which upheld a lower court ruling that found it illegal to keep an extended military presence long after protests quelled. 

In November, a federal judge permanently blocked the Trump administration from deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon.

The judge, Karin Immergut, found the move to use service members for the purpose of protecting a federal immigration facility exceeded presidential authority. Trump nominated Immergut to the bench in his first term.

Guard members are still deployed in the District of Columbia, New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee.