San Francisco’s city leadership has joined in resisting the idea. Mayor Daniel Lurie acknowledged that while fentanyl is the city’s biggest street-level challenge, deploying military troops is not the answer. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins issued a clear statement: “Let me be clear — no local or elected San Francisco leaders want the National Guard deployed to San Francisco at the direction of the Trump Administration.” Local officials have emphasized that federal law prohibits National Guard troops from acting as local police, stressing that even deployment would not permit troops to make arrests or investigate crimes — contrary to some of the suggestions made by Trump’s team.
California is not new to legal fights over federal troop deployments. Earlier this year, Newsom and Bonta filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s federalization of the California National Guard in June, citing violations of the U.S. Constitution—including the Tenth Amendment and statutory limits under 10 U.S.C. § 12406. That case involved roughly 4,000 Guard members federalized without the governor’s consent. While some troops have since returned to state control, approximately 300 remained federalized and were sent to Portland and Chicago for training or support roles. A federal judge in September ruled that the deployment to Los Angeles likely violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal troops from performing domestic law-enforcement functions. Continue reading…
