California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) denounced President Trump’s threat to deploy National Guard troops to help combat crime in California as an “absolute” violation of the law.
“Absolute, complete, transparent, blatant, brazen violation of the law. The Posse Comitatus Act said you cannot use military to engage in civilian law enforcement on American soil. Period, full stop,” he told NewsNation’s Blake Burman in an episode of “The Hill.”
“Tackling crime is the very definition of civilian law enforcement,” he continued. “He — the military would be involved in detentions, arrests, searches and seizures, in clear violation. So, he’s already, he’s saying he will break the law.”
Bonta added, “But that’s consistent for him, he’s broken it 39 times. That’s how many times we sued him in 30 weeks.”
Trump signaled last week he could attempt to widen his efforts to exert federal control to other Democratic-led cities after launching a crackdown in Washington, D.C., citing what he said was out-of-control crime and squalor.
“We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” Trump told reporters during a press conference after boosting federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital.
“New York has a problem. And then you have, of course Baltimore and Oakland, we don’t even mention that anymore. They’re so far gone. We’re not going to lose our cities over this,” the president continued at the time. “And this will go further. We’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up very quickly, as they say.”
Despite the move, the district’s records show that crime is at a 30-year low. The Justice Department launched a probe into the D.C. data earlier this week.
Democrats, district residents and local officials have pushed back on the Trump administration’s efforts, including the deployment of National Guard troops — some of them armed — across the district.
Trump has also suggested he could work with Congress to extend the federal takeover past the 30 days allotted under the city’s Home Rule Act.
His latest threat on California comes after the president deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles earlier this year to quell protests of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) deportation raids.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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