Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to instruct soldiers deployed to Los Angeles to help arrest rioters, even though the military is generally barred from domestic law enforcement.
In a leaked letter, Noem asked Hegseth on Sunday to have the Pentagon give “direction to [Department of Defense] forces to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Title 18 is the main code dealing with federal crimes and criminal procedure.
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“This letter was sent days ago, prior to the Secretary of Homeland Security and Secretary of Defense meeting with the President,” Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Beast. “The posture of our brave troops has not changed. This is a whole-of-government approach to restore law and order. We are grateful to our military members and law enforcement who have acted with patriotism in the face of assault, taunts, and violence.”
President Donald Trump has taken the extraordinary step of deploying 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles despite opposition from local officials.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused the president of intentionally “sowing chaos” and sued to end the National Guard deployments, which he says are illegally militarizing Los Angeles.
Legal experts told the Chronicle that Noem’s letter is a “grave escalation” that could be a sign the Trump administration is planning to invoke one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a sitting president.
The Daily Beast has also reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.
A federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits using federal troops for domestic policing, except when expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
The main exception to the rule is the Insurrection Act, a compilation of statutes that allows the U.S. president to use the military to quash an armed rebellion or other insurrection, according to Lawfare.
The letter could be viewed either as preparation to invoke the Insurrection Act or as part of an effort to frighten people into staying home from the protests, national security law expert Stephen Dycus told the Chronicle.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to say what legal authority would allow the military to arrest the rioters, or whether the president planned to invoke the Insurrection Act.
The Insurrection Act was last used in 1992 to suppress the riots that broke out in Los Angeles following the acquittal of three white police officers who had severely beaten Rodney King, an unarmed Black man.
Those circumstances were far different, though. Dozens of people had been killed in the riots, and both the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of California had asked then-President George H.W. Bush to mobilize the National Guard.
As of Tuesday, local officials said they had the situation in Los Angeles under control and that only minor injuries had been reported. The demonstrations were limited to a handful of relatively small areas, with most of the sprawling city operating normally.
During a press conference on Sunday, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said the demonstrations had turned violent over the weekend, with rioters setting off fireworks at officers and throwing pieces of concrete at police.
Video also shows the police using tear gas, flash-bangs, and non-lethal bullets to disperse crowds downtown.
According to McDonnell, though, the National Guard was called in prematurely, and the people peacefully protesting the ICE raids during the day weren’t the same ones rioting at night.
Trump has nevertheless hinted he might invoke the Insurrection Act, Axios reported.
“The people that are causing the problem are professional agitators. They’re insurrectionists,” he told reporters Monday.
The president has also deployed about half as many troops to L.A. as he has sent to the entire southern border, Military.com reporter Steve Benyon pointed out in a post on the social media platform Bluesky.
As of late May, about 9,115 active-duty troops had been sent to the border to assist with the president’s mass deportation efforts, The Hill reported, compared to the 4,700 now headed to Los Angeles.
Without the Insurrection Act, their mission is limited to protecting federal property and personnel.
The letter that Noem sent to Hegseth also asked for “drone surveillance support” as well as “logistical support and the transportation of munitions” from Fort Benning in Georgia and another site in Wyoming, the Chronicle reported.
The letter didn’t specify what the weapons were for or why they were requested from those specific locations.
