Rep. Hoyle Statement on President Trump’s Unprecedented Decision to Federalize the California National Guard
For Immediate Release: June 9, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C.– Representative Val Hoyle (OR-04) released the following statement after President Trump’s unprecedented federalization of the California National Guard in response to protests in Los Angeles:
“You don’t send the National Guard into a city unless local leaders and law enforcement ask for it. That didn’t happen here and it only served to make matters worse. People have every right to peacefully protest the actions of ICE under this administration given the massive overreach and lack of due process. This militarized response is not about keeping people safe, it's about control. It should have no place in our democracy.”
Background
-
On Sunday, June 8th, President Trump federalized the California National Guard without the consent of California Governor Gavin Newsom, in response to anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests in Los Angeles.
-
President Lyndon B. Johnson was the last president to federalize a state’s National Guard without the Governor’s consent.
-
In 1965, President Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard, without Governor George Wallace’s consent, to help protect Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and 50,000 Civil Rights marchers as they marched from Selma to Montgomery. President Johnson’s order came after Dr. King and his protestors were brutally attacked by state and local police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what became known as Bloody Sunday.
-
###