House Democrats are demanding information from the Department of Defense about an incident in which Marines detained a civilian in Los Angeles last week.
Reuters reported that Marines detained a civilian Friday at a federal building in L.A. It’s the first known detention of its kind since the Trump administration sent troops to California earlier this month after protests over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
In a letter to Gen. Gregory Guillot obtained by NOTUS, 34 Democrats, including nearly two dozen from California, raised questions about whether detaining the person broke federal laws that restrict troops’ authority when they operate within the U.S. Guillot serves as the commander of the U.S. Northern Command, the military’s strategic command unit for all of North America.
Los Angeles-area Reps. Ted Lieu and Gil Cisneros, both veterans, are leading the request for more information. Cisneros told NOTUS in a statement that he was “disturbed by the flagrant misuse of our nation’s troops.”
“The Trump Administration is using our military service members as political pawns to create a false narrative of uncontrolled violence, trample on legal precedent and perpetuate fear and hate in our communities,” Cisneros wrote in the statement.
Democrats, in the minority, cannot force the Department of Defense to hand over the information. But the letter says they need more details about the temporary detention because they believe the Marines’ actions could violate the Posse Comitatus Act. The act prevents the military from enforcing domestic laws unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act, which President Donald Trump has publicly considered.
Lieu, a former military prosecutor, told NOTUS in a statement that the detention represents a “disturbing escalation” in the Trump administration’s use of troops.
“I am intimately familiar with the laws that the U.S. Military is bound by. The stories detailing that Marines temporarily detained a U.S. citizen in Los Angeles would represent a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. No member of the U.S. military is allowed to take part in civilian law enforcement (absent invocation of the Insurrection Act), no matter what Trump claims,” Lieu said in the statement. “This disturbing incident shows just how inappropriate it is that Trump has deployed troops on American soil against Americans.”
The U.S. Northern Command did not respond to a request for comment from NOTUS. But a spokesperson told Reuters in a statement that active duty personnel “may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances,” but that “detention ends immediately when the individual(s) can be safely transferred to the custody” of civilian law enforcement.
The spokesperson’s remarks caught the attention of Democrats, who wrote that they’d like more information about what the Marines are being ordered to do — and not do — while they’re deployed on U.S. soil “to restore order,” as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described it in a post earlier this month.
“Please provide, in detail, what ‘specific circumstances’ justify military service members providing law enforcement duties,” they asked in the letter.
They also asked whether any troops were “ordered to violate the Posse Comitatus Act and assist law enforcement outside of ensuring the protection and safety of Federal personnel and property.” If so, the Democrats wanted to know who gave those orders.
The House Democrats also pointed out that whether the troops should have been mobilized to respond to the protests in the first place remains in dispute. In his decision to do so, Trump bypassed state officials — the first time a president has done so since the Civil Rights Movement — and California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed suit in federal court, alleging Trump’s actions overstepped presidential authorities.
The Trump administration has argued that the mobilization didn’t violate federal law or the Constitution because Trump invoked a presidential “protective power” to protect federal government assets and operations.
The Democrats who signed the letter — including another California veteran, Rep. Salud Carbajal — also argued that the Trump administration is politicizing the military.
“As Members of Congress, we take an oath to defend the Constitution — the same oath that you and every service member has taken,” the letter states. “The use of our military service members, who have sacrificed so much to defend our country, as pawns in a political stunt is sickening and disrespectful.”
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.
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