Who Runs Los Angeles?

Tom Homan and Stephen Miller -- neither one elected -- say their word is the supreme law. But isn't there still a 10th Amendment?

From Dr. Phil on X

Saturday night, President Donald Trump issued a “Presidential Memorandum” that nationalized 2,000 National Guard troops to suppress protests in Los Angeles. While the decree describes protests as “a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States,” it does not invoke the Insurrection Act. Instead, Trump appears to be relying on 10 U.S.C. § 12406. Law Professor Steve Vladeck wrote, “All that these troops will be able to do is provide a form of force protection and other logistical support for ICE personnel.” (I recommend people read his summary of this law, which, per my reading, is a vague authority to send the National Guard to do <waves hands>.)

Update: As of Sunday night, it appears that the California National Guard is on the ground. Trump has threatened to also send active-duty Marines.

The protests were responding to a series of ICE raids in the garment district and a Home Depot in Westlake District, as well as other locations. In the garment district, where immigrant workers often toil for pennies on the dollar, a DHS spokesperson told the LA Times they were executing search warrants and appear to have detained around 100 people. DHS also arrested David Huerta, the California president of the Service Employees International Union, as well as around 60 protestors, at least I heard.

The pictures I have seen online show a phalanx of DHS/ ICE agents in full riot gear. Immigration lawyers posted online that they were unable to talk to their clients. The display was for the protestors – probably based on the reaction to ICE raids in San Diego last week that also drew a crowd of protestors – which I add because there’s no indication ICE was arresting anyone with a criminal record. Even worse, Dr. Phil McGraw was apparently embedded with ICE, which suggests that all of this was being done to make a point, display force and violence, and embody a promised threat against “sanctuary cities.” (McGraw has already posted an interview with Tom Homan in which Homan claims the Los Angeles raid was related to “money laundering investigations” related to “drug cartels”. He described this official position towards protestors as “zero tolerance.”)

This extreme and aggressive action by the Trump administration comes on the heels of reports that people arrested by ICE, including children, are being held in makeshift detention spaces because ICE has maxed out their detention capacity. CBS reported that people were being held in the basement of a Los Angeles federal building with no beds and limited access to necessities.

Thursday, Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi also met with representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police. Bondi commented that her counterparts in Poland were impressed with American policing. While the substantive conversation was private, the public remarks focused on the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which, in addition to obscene amounts of funding for DHS, ICE, and local law enforcement, also allows for no tax on overtime. FOP National Vice President Joe Gamaldi made sure to note that the FOP approved of “mass deportation” and falsely claimed that immigrants create crime.

Plainly, the ICE raids in Los Angeles were intended to be a spectacle of cruelty, and they included the excessive use of “less lethal” munition like rubber bullets and tear gas, both of which are extremely dangerous. The residents of Los Angeles are not strangers to violent policing, and, consequently, were more prepared to respond than other cities. (Los Angeles is also, quite simply, a very large and diverse city.)

Targeting Los Angeles has long been a dream for Trump, Stephen Miller, and Tom Homan. Homan and Miller have been outspoken that their plan is to bombard “sanctuary cities” with violence in retaliation for being run by Democrats. (It’s worth pointing out that many Democrat-run cities are racially diverse with leaders who are Black and Brown, a form of local self-determination that the Trump administration appears determined to quash.)

U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has also made it his mission to target Los Angeles. Just a week ago, he claimed a new plan to force Los Angeles jails to turn over potentially deportable people to ICE. That plan – getting warrants from judges – is just what some people call “the current state of law.” Essayli portrayed it as a way to “neutralize CA state sanctuary law,” which currently does not allow jailers to turn people over to ICE. (ICE can either get a criminal warrant, as Essayli is apparently doing, or jailers can release people and then ICE can pick them up after they walk out the door.)

California Governor Gavin Newsom took a break from podcasting to say on social media that he thought bringing the National Guard to Los Angeles would be counterproductive and on Sunday formally asked Trump to recall the National Guard, calling the incursion “a serious breach of state sovereignty.” Now he’s done what all galvanizing, iconic leaders do in response to lawless deployment of the military and filed a lawsuit against the administration.

Trump’s people were complaining that the Los Angeles police slow-walked their response to the protests, particularly one incident that involved federal agents trapped in a Home Depot parking lot. (Miller, according to news reports, told his agents to target Home Depot as a place where day workers sometimes assemble to get work.) It appears since the National Guard arrived, LAPD is doing more aggressive arrests and crowd control.

I’ve been watching the ways in which local police are responding to federal incursions. Homan and Miller have made it plain that they want to force local police to assist federal immigration enforcement, whether through bullying, coercion, law, confusion, or simple appeals to their often shared carceral values.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell issued a statement saying that he did not want to and would not help the feds conduct immigration raids. I think he is telling the truth. Not only is there no benefit to assisting with “mass deportations,” especially when it comes to workers, his department has plenty of other problems. (The problem for McDonnell is probably less one of human rights and more one of trying to run the trains on time. Nevertheless, it’s notable.)

On the other hand, the LAPD has nearly 9,000 sworn officers and a powerful union. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass promised on Saturday to increase officer hiring. During protests in February, some rank-and-file officers were reportedly annoyed at being told to stand down in confrontations with protestors. There are some indications that rank-and-file in the Los Angeles Sheriff Department would prefer to be more aggressive towards protestors than the current sheriff will allow. With the FOP aggressively continuing to court Trump and his allies, I am watching to see how local law enforcement responds and if there will be a split between rank-and-file and leadership on the issue of “mass deportations.”