Will Trump Send the National Guard to Other Cities? Administration Says It’s On the Table

The Trump Administration is signaling the President could deploy the National Guard more widely to help enforce immigration policy and quell protests amid its crackdown on demonstrations over ICE raids in Los Angeles.

President Donald Trump told reporters this week that his deployment of thousands of National Guard members to Los Angeles would be “the first, perhaps, of many.”

“I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it, if they do it, they’re going to be met with equal or greater force than we met right here,” the President warned.

The Administration has held discussions about mobilizing the National Guard to assist with immigration enforcement in the U.S. “for months,” Trump border czar Tom Homan told the Washington Post.

Further deployments will be considered if other cities “go down the same path” as Los Angeles, he said. “As long as it’s peaceful protest we’re okay, but if it gets out of hand like it did in L.A., then the President will consider it on a case-by-case basis.”

The military could provide security, transportation, infrastructure, and intelligence assistance, Homan said, though he noted it could not assist with immigration arrests.

Read more: What the Data Reveals About Trump’s Push to Arrest and Deport More Migrants

The comments come as Trump has mobilized the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles—against the wishes of state and local officials—in response to protests that broke out following a series of immigration raids. At least 330 undocumented immigrants in the city have been arrested. The protests have generally been peaceful, though escalated tensions caused portions of downtown Los Angeles to be placed under an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew through Thursday. Demonstrations have spread across the country as well, as protesters have taken to the streets in solidarity with Los Angeles and in opposition to the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.

Five hundred of the National Guardsmen deployed in L.A. have already been trained to assist immigration agents, the commander of the task force overseeing the federal troops sent to the city told The Associated Press, though officials said that they were not sure that the military would remain in the area once demonstrations settled.

Its presence there is the subject of a challenge working its way through the court system. A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Trump’s federalization of California’s National Guard was illegal and ordered that control be returned to the state, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the decision hours later, delivering Trump a win.

Read more: Why Trump Sending the National Guard to L.A. Is Different From Its Deployment There in 1992

“If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!” the President shared on Truth Social early Friday following the stay.

Prior to the deployment of the National Guard to L.A., the Department of Homeland Security called for more than 20,000 National Guardsmen to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the New York Times first reported earlier this year. 

The servicemembers would help transport and process individuals to detention centers, as well as assist with catching people, per the Washington Post, which cited a memo it had obtained.