Trump announces National Guard to be removed from LA, Chicago and Portland
The deployment of National Guard members raised legal questions.
National Guard troops will be removed from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, President Donald Trump announced in a social media post on Wednesday.
The move comes one week after the Supreme Court kept a block on the administration's deployment of National Guardsmen to Chicago, stating the president had so far "failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois."
Trump didn't mention the Supreme Court setback when he announced the removal of National Guard troops. He didn't elaborate on the decision, and suggested the troops would "come back" in the future if crime rates rise.
"We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact. Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in. 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 in the post.
Trump's announcement suggested that the administration would comply with the Supreme Court ruling -- which upheld a federal judge's ruling on the Chicago deployment of the Illinois National Guard -- for a number of its domestic federal deployments, including Portland and Los Angeles.
According to U.S. Northern Command, 300 Illinois Guardsmen were activated in Chicago and 100 Oregon National Guardsmen were activated in Portland -- but none were engaging in operations because of the pending Supreme Court case. One hundred California National Guard troops were on a federal protection mission for ICE agents, which came to an operational halt on December 15, according to Northern Command.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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