Retreating from the controversy, on January 5th, 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to deploy 2,000 members to Los Angeles. This action took place at a very sensitive political moment with increasing hostility regarding immigration and protests against policing within the city. The National Guard is a rare, dual-purposed branch of the US military. Functioning on both state and federal level authority, it has a celebrated history that goes back to 1636. As of FY 2023, the National Guard has an authorized strength of 431,291. According to the US Department of Defense, this unique force of citizen soldiers is integral to the nation’s defense and civil assistance strategies.
The recent deployment smacks of banana republic politics, leading many to question what happens when the National Guard is sent into civilian contexts. This should lead us to critically analyze the Guard’s historical role in similar situations throughout US history. We’ll be looking at its achievements and the debate it’s sparked.
Historical Context of the National Guard
The National Guard can directly trace its roots to citizen-soldier militias established in Massachusetts in 1636. Originally formed to protect against external dangers, these neighborhood-based militias developed a different character. The Militia Act of 1903 was a critical inflection point. It further institutively rooted the National Guard as a distinct organized military force under federal authority. The world wars made this divergence permanent. During those eras, the National Guard was absolutely essential to national defense.
Today, the National Guard maintains its dual mission: serving both state and federal interests. Members participate in real life training scenarios on a daily basis. They go to two weeks’ worth of training each year and do drills one weekend a month. This demanding routine out-fits them for every type of possible mission, from domestic disaster relief to theater military operations.
Deployment and Civilian Law Enforcement
The National Guard—which in some states is more under the control of governors—can quickly be deployed to suppress insurrections as per the Insurrection Act of 1807. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally limits domestic use of the military. Consequently, the military’s role in civilian law enforcement is tightly constrained. Presidents had still occasionally invoked the Insurrection Act in violation of these restrictions. This enabled them to effectively deploy the National Guard both to ensure civil rights, as in Little Rock, and to restore public order.
For example, in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard to ensure the desegregation of public schools. The same goes for when, in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent the National Guard to defend civil rights marchers in Alabama. The latest use of the Guard came under Governor Gavin Newsom, who has repeatedly deployed Guard members within California during wildfire emergencies.
This current debate over deploying the National Guard into urban environments ignites a firestorm over whether such use is warranted, successful, or necessary. As Robert Cohen, a professor of history and social studies at New York University, noted regarding Trump’s decisions:
“wrong, but typical of the way Trump’s partisanship pollutes almost all of his major decisions.”
Recent Deployments and Community Impact
As we have seen this past year, in civil unrest situations and the pandemic response, the National Guard has been critically important early on in those emergencies. In 1992, California Governor Pete Wilson and President George H.W. Bush deployed the National Guard to quell riots in Los Angeles. More recently, in 2005, about 50,000 National Guard troops were called up after Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of southern states.
The new deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles has serious implications for community safety and civil rights. As the American Civil Liberties Union recently wrote, putting military personnel into civilian spaces often increases rather than diffuses tensions. Supporters argue that these are needed to protect the public when things get out of hand during tense situations.
The Reclaiming Our Dream deployment today in Los Angeles, which sheds light on deeply entrenched issues caused by hostile immigration policy and the America First movement. With the protests still ongoing, conversations about the National Guard’s role in civilian America are more important than ever. How well these deployments are received, and how successful they turn out to be, will surely shape future choices about their use in domestic contexts.
