All 13 Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee want panel chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., to hold a hearing with Pentagon officials to address the Trump administration’s increasing use of the military in American cities.
“The American people deserve clarity on the chosen priorities and missions of the Department of Defense and the short- and long-term implications for national security and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars of this new focus on a mission usually reserved for law enforcement professionals,” the senators wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Wicker.
“We call on the Department to explain to Congress and the American people how it plans to resource, execute and justify such a campaign, and how doing so will impact military readiness, the U.S. military’s execution of core missions of deterring and preparing for war, public trust in our military, implications for servicemembers and their families across the United States and the safety of the American people,” the letter stated.
Trump in June took control of California’s Guard and sent more than 2,000 National Guard troops plus about 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles amid protests over immigration raids, framing the mission as protecting federal sites.
Through the summer he touted a tougher posture in Washington, D.C., with reports of a sizable National Guard presence as a model for other cities, even as critics questioned the legal basis under the Posse Comitatus Act.
In September, he signed an order to deploy the National Guard to Memphis as part of a crime crackdown and floated Chicago as “probably next,” drawing swift pushback from local leaders and new legal challenges; a federal judge in California also blocked broader use of troops for crime-fighting.
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