Exclusive: DHS secretary seeks military arrests in Los Angeles in leaked letter [View all]
One day before the Trump administration deployed U.S. Marines to confront protesters in Los Angeles, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to direct the military to detain or arrest “lawbreakers,” a move one expert called “a grave escalation.”
A letter sent Sunday from Noem to Hegseth, obtained by the Chronicle, requested that the Pentagon give “Direction to DoD 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 military is generally barred under federal laws from taking part in domestic law enforcement. Noem’s request may be a step toward the administration sidestepping those laws by invoking the Insurrection Act, two legal experts said in interviews.
Noem also asked Hegseth for “drone surveillance support” as well as weapons and logistics assistance in Los Angeles. By Monday, the Defense Department had deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles, where they were to join more than 2,000 federalized California National Guard troops in quelling raucous immigration protests.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, called Noem’s request ominous and out of proportion in a country where “intense protests have happened throughout history.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/article/noem-immigration-protests-letter-20369001.php
= new reply since forum marked as read