Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta submitted a court filing Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Illinois’ lawsuit against the Trump administration’s National Guard troop deployment to assist with immigration enforcement.
Newsom and Bonta’s amicus brief details California’s recent experience with the expanding federal mission for the National Guard. Since the June 7 deployment of soldiers to Los Angeles, the federal government ordered hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon.
The Trump administration has extended its federalization of the California National Guard to at least February. According to Newsom’s office, the administration has asserted that federalized troops should engage in law enforcement without judicial oversight, a stance that defies established legal norms.
Trump’s troop policy sidelines the courts, flouts congressional limitations, encroaches on state sovereignty and would pave the way for “an alarming expansion of federal power,” California officials contend.
“Our message to the courts is clear — Trump is putting our members of the military on the frontlines of a completely unlawful activation against American communities,” Newsom said in a statement. “The federal government’s actions in Los Angeles earlier this summer were just Trump’s first step to completely transform the role of the military in American society by deploying the U.S. military against its own civilians. We won’t stand for it and we implore the courts to affirm states’ sovereign rights to handle any public safety matters at home.”
“The facts haven’t changed. Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like (Illinois Gov. JB) Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, President Trump has exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email to HeySoCal.com. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”
Bonta blasted the administration for militarizing law enforcement.
“The Trump Administration is asking the Supreme Court to grant it unprecedented and unlimited power to deploy the military into American cities — power it has made clear that it fully intends to abuse,” Bonta said in a statement. “Trump wants an army that serves a King, but in America, in our democracy, our military does not police the people. California has been ground zero for the Trump Administration’s militarization of American streets. In the four months since troops were first deployed to Los Angeles, we’ve seen the President abandon any attempt to justify their continued presence in our state, taking a near limitless view of executive power. I urge the Supreme Court to reject the President’s latest bid to defy our constitutional norms and grab power he does not have.”
At Trump’s behest, Department of Defense Secretary Hegseth transferred 4,000 members of the California National Guard to federal control to serve in a civilian law enforcement role in Los Angeles and Southern California communities.
California sued to stop the federalization. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Wednesday in the Trump administration’s appeal to the trial judge’s order that blocked the troop federalization and deployment.
Newsom’s office noted falling crime rates, contrary to Trump administration assertions that troop deployments are needed to quell lawlessness.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association reported that overall violent crime in major California cities is down 12.5% in 2025 compared with 2024. Another data set from the California Department of Justice showed nearly every major crime category, including violent crime and homicides, dropped last year.
The California amicus brief is on the attorney general’s website.
Mayor Bass, Rep. Garcia call for probe into feds’ immigration detainment
LA Mayor Karen Bass and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, on Monday called for a congressional investigation into the detainment practices and alleged abuse of U.S. citizens and immigrants by federal agents without a judicial warrant or probable cause.
Bass repeated her denunciation of aggressive, widespread immigration enforcement. Elected Democrats in the Los Angeles area have criticized federal immigration enforcement since operations began in June.
“I will always stand up to protect Los Angeles. Reports of Angelenos — U.S. citizens — being Tased, dragged and unlawfully detained should make us all concerned,” Bass said in a statement. “I’m calling for an immediate congressional investigation into these egregious injustices, and I thank Congressman Garcia for his support. This is not just an assault on people of Los Angeles — this is an assault on every person, in every city in this country.”
Garcia, the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said masked men are dragging U.S. citizens off the streets and thrown into detention cells with no access to legal counsel.
“No one, regardless of their background or appearance, should be living in fear of being thrown behind bars by their own government because of their race or what they look like,” Garcia said in a statement. “This is not the America we know and love. Every person in this country has rights, and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) must stop trampling on our civil liberties. Their actions are unconstitutional, unacceptable, and completely un-American, and we will not stop fighting until this administration is held accountable.”
City Council members Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto- Martinez joined Bass and Garcia at a news conference Monday along with city workers and immigrant rights advocates.
“Angelenos are being beaten, terrorized and detained without due process,” Hernandez said in a statement. “We must fight to keep democracy alive and hold federal immigration enforcement accountable for every abuse.”
The Trump administration has maintained that federal immigration enforcement focuses on removing people suspected of violent crimes. Federal officials have also denied allegations that detainees are mistreated or held in substandard facilities.
