The Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild is opposed to the use of military forces to “put down” or “control” the heartfelt reactions by community members to workplace immigration raids in Los Angeles and other cities.
The Trump administration claims the use of the troops is necessary because local police are incapable of protecting the masked, non-uniformed, but heavily armed, federal forces from ICE, DHS, ATF and the FBI. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In California, for example, Governor Gavin Newsom has denounced the use of military troops as a dangerous escalation of the confrontations. We agree. We remember how National Guard Troops fired on student anti-war protestors at American universities.
The MLTF will be developing a more comprehensive plan of action, including the use of Article 138 of the UCMJ and the Nuremberg Principles. For now, we pledge our support for members of the National Guard and the active-duty military personnel who are opposed to attacking and killing those who oppose the illegal and immoral removal of undocumented workers.
It is important for servicemembers to recall in these moments that each step in a chain of orders must be legal for their orders to be legal – including whether those orders are issued under the appropriate authority.
