The Majority Democratic Caucus of the Westchester County Board of Legislators strongly opposes the Trump administration’s unprecedented deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles since Friday. This action represents a dangerous overreach of federal power that undermines constitutional principles and threatens basic civil liberties.
The administration has deployed military forces against citizens exercising their right to peaceful protest without demonstrating the extraordinary circumstances that would justify such measures. This decision is clearly motivated by politics rather than genuine public safety concerns.
Even more egregious is the administration’s exploitation of a legal loophole to commandeer California’s own National Guard, forcing them to act under federal direction against the express wishes of the state’s governor. This unprecedented federal seizure of state military forces violates the fundamental balance of power between states and the federal government that protects states from federal overreach. The last time a president deployed the National Guard against a governor’s wishes was in 1965 when President Johnson sent troops to Alabama—to protect civil rights demonstrators, not suppress them.
We call for immediate respect for the Constitution and established democratic norms. The broad authorization to deploy troops wherever immigration-related protests might occur sets a dangerous precedent. This includes peaceful demonstrations and directly threatens every American’s right to speak out against their government.
This deployment crosses the line between civilian law enforcement and military control of American streets. We stand with Governor Hochul and Attorney General James in calling for this decision to be reversed and urging all elected leaders to stand up and defend the constitutional rights that protect every American’s freedom to assemble and speak out.
Assemblymember Dana Levenburg said, “Through increasingly frightening immigration actions, the Trump administration is attempting to turn our communities into a police state. The unnecessary federalization of California’s National Guard and deployment of U.S. Marines are a massive escalation of this effort. Notably, Trump declined to take similar actions during riots in 2020 or during the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, strongly suggesting he knows he is wrong right now. As a state legislator, I stand with the many governors, including our own, who have condemned this abuse of power against California.
Moreover, the tactics of Trump’s ICE are creating needless levels of fear and confusion in our communities. Their habit of having masked plainclothes officers take people away is already being imitated by predators, leading to a situation where people will not be able to tell the difference between law enforcement and criminals. This is a recipe for disaster that puts residents and law enforcement officials in unnecessary danger.
The rise in cases of mistaken identity, wrongful detention, and unlawful deportation indicates that ICE agents are growing desperate to hit quotas and getting sloppier in their work, putting everyone at risk. The federal government needs to focus its efforts on actual criminals and allow our local law enforcement to keep families safe, instead of tearing people from their loved ones without due process.
Parents shouldn’t have to live in fear that their children will be ‘disappeared’ by masked agents. Americans should not have to carry around a dozen proofs of identity just in case an agent demands to see their papers, with no guarantee that an agent will actually acknowledge their legitimacy. And we cannot be silent as this administration ignores the Constitution and threatens to use military force against Americans. We deserve to be safe and free; the federal government can and should pursue comprehensive immigration reform instead of totalitarianism. We must all stand together right now and reject these attacks on our liberty.”
County Legislator James Nolan, the only republican on the board, did not agree with the BOL statement, posting, “My colleagues from the Westchester County Board of Legislators Democratic Caucus have chosen to engage in issues that do not directly concern them. They recently released a statement about the violent protests in Los Angeles and the President’s decision to deploy the military to uphold the law and protect citizens from chaos, looting, and destruction. This stance is not only hypocritical but also quite amusing, as many of these same colleagues ignore pressing issues right here in Westchester County and New York State. If you are turning a blind eye to local problems, you have no business commenting on events happening in another state on the other side of the country.
“Let’s be clear: everyone has the right to peacefully protest. However, when protests turn violent and cause harm, they become riots, and such behavior is unacceptable. It is ironic that when Governor Hochul called in the National Guard to address issues at the prison—stemming from her pro-criminal policies and the recent firings of corrections officers—none of the Democrats in Albany or Westchester County spoke out against the deployment or in defense of the very laws that endanger both corrections officers and inmates. If President Trump finds it necessary to mobilize the National Guard to restore order because Democrat-led municipalities refuse to act, he has the authority to protect the people of this nation and hold criminals accountable.”
