US President
Donald Trump has the National Guard withdrawn from democratically governed major cities ChicagoLos Angeles and Portland announced. At the same time, he held out the prospect of future missions despite court orders: “We will come back, perhaps in a completely different and stronger form, if crime shoots up again.”
Trump claimed in his statement that only the deployment of the National Guard had significantly reduced crime in the cities. He went on to describe the troops as “great patriots.”
A dispute has been raging for months over the deployment of the National Guard USAwhich went all the way to the highest court in the United States. Trump suffered a defeat there last week. The The Supreme Court had blocked the deployment to Chicagoafter the democratically governed city sued. A federal judge also had a ruling in mid-December The Trump administration ordered its National Guard deployment in Los Angeles to finish. A federal judge had previously Deployment of troops in Portland declared illegal.
According to the rulings, the government overstepped its authority by sending troops to democratically governed cities on the grounds that crime was rampant there. According to the judges, there is no evidence to support the claim that the troops are necessary to protect federal property.
Protests against mass deportations had triggered operations
Trump also justified the deployment of the National Guard with a “rebellion” against the government. The president was alluding to the sometimes violent protests against the mass deportations he initiated to.
The National Guard is a military reserve unit and part of the US Armed Forces. Normally, the states have control over the National Guard. Special rules apply to the capital Washington, DC, which is not legally a separate state. As a rule, the National Guard is deployed in the event of natural disasters, civil unrest or internal emergencies.
The mayors of the affected cities and politicians from the Democratic Party criticized the deployment of the troops as unnecessary. They accused the Trump administration of exceeding its authority and exaggerating isolated acts of violence during largely peaceful protests to justify sending in troops.
