Trump Orders Federal Takeover of California National Guard, Deploying at Least 2,000 Troops Toward Los Angeles
On the evening of June 7, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum invoking 10 U.S.C. 12406 to call at least 2,000 National Guard personnel into federal service for 60 days, with federal personnel and property in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, as the order's first destination. Starting the day before, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in downtown Los Angeles and elsewhere had drawn days of protests, and on June 7 protesters confronted federal officers outside a Homeland Security Investigations office in Paramount, Los Angeles County.
The memorandum, titled Department of Defense Security for the Protection of Department of Homeland Security Functions, said incidents of violence and disorder against ICE and other federal personnel enforcing federal immigration laws had occurred and credibly threatened to continue, and that protests or acts of violence that directly inhibit the execution of the laws constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States. It said the Guard members called into federal service would temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and protect federal property; the Secretary of Defense would coordinate with state governors and the National Guard Bureau to identify the members and units to be called, and could also employ members of the regular Armed Forces to augment the mission.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that evening that violent mobs had attacked ICE officers and federal law enforcement agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles, operations she called essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States; she said California's Democratic leaders had completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens, and that the President had therefore signed the memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that had been allowed to fester. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that evening that the National Guard was being mobilized immediately and that, if the violence continued, active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County were on high alert.
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded the same day: The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions. He said Los Angeles authorities could access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice, that the state was in close coordination with the city and county, and that there was currently no unmet need; the Guard, he noted, had been admirably serving Los Angeles throughout its recovery. This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust, he concluded. The Governor's office said the call-up was made without a request from the Governor, moving command of the Guard from the Governor to the President. The California Highway Patrol said the same day that, at the Governor's direction, it would deploy additional resources to Los Angeles to maintain public safety on state highways and roadways.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2025年6月，被联邦接管的加州国民警卫队人员在加利福尼亚州洛杉矶县洛杉矶市街头执勤。美国北方司令部 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: California National Guard members, federalized in June 2025, on duty in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Photo by U.S. Northern Command, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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