In response to protests over his administration’s immigration enforcement actions, President Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to Los Angeles. Two days later, on June 9, he deployed an additional 2,000 Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines.

State and local leaders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, strongly opposed the deployments, calling them illegal and excessive, and California filed a lawsuit to block the National Guard mobilization.

“This is quite anachronous to the way that we order our society. Decisions about using the military are made at the lowest levels of government, not the highest, except in the most extraordinary circumstances,” William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, tells KJZZ.

“With civilian law enforcement, we expect the officials who are in charge of it—the police—to understand relations with civilians, to protect civil liberties, to show proper respect…these soldiers haven't had any training like that,” he says.

In the Agence France Presse article, “Trump flexes strongman instincts over Los Angeles protests,” Banks says, “It's a slippery slope. If the president tries to do more, he's cutting against the grain in the United States of a long history of leaving law enforcement to civilians.”

Banks was also quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle article, “DHS secretary sought military arrests and drones in Los Angeles in leaked letter,” and featured in The Conversation article, “Trump orders Marines to Los Angeles as protests escalate over immigration raids, demonstrating the president’s power to deploy troops on US soil.”