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By MICHELLE L. PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has temporarily suspended his initiative to send National Guard troops to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon, following a series of legal obstacles.
On Wednesday, Trump announced via social media that he is pulling back the National Guard deployment for now. “We will return, possibly in a much stronger form, when crime starts to rise again – it’s only a matter of time!” he stated.
National Guard troops had previously withdrawn from Los Angeles, where they were initially deployed earlier this year as part of Trump’s extensive campaign against crime and immigration. Though troops were also sent to Chicago and Portland, legal challenges prevented them from taking to the streets.
The president’s attempts to deploy military forces in cities governed by Democrats have consistently faced legal opposition.
In a notable development last December, the Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s request to station National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of its immigration enforcement efforts. While this was not a final verdict, it represented a significant and unusual hindrance to the president’s plans from the nation’s highest court.
In the nation’s capital, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to halt the deployments of more than 2,000 guardsmen.
In Oregon, a federal judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there.
California National Guard troops had already been removed from the streets of Los Angeles by Dec. 15 after a court ruling. But an appeals court had paused a separate part of the order that required control of the Guard to return to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order. That paves the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalized the Guard in June.
Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
