As Military Helps More with Law Enforcement, Senate Democrat's Proposal Seeks Guardrails

The U.S. military would be able to help civilian law enforcement only in narrow circumstances under a bill being introduced Thursday by a Democratic senator to close what she described as a loophole in existing law that could allow more domestic troop deployments.

The bill from Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., would amend an existing law by specifying that troops can assist civilian law enforcement only for a humanitarian crisis, natural disaster, public health emergency or major public event with extensive security needs, such as a presidential inauguration.

The bill comes as Democrats have been looking to tighten laws around domestic troop deployments after President Donald Trump sent nearly 5,000 National Guardsmen and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests against the Trump administration's immigration raids.

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"These units should be doing combat-relevant training," Duckworth said in a phone interview with Military.com.

"The Marines, that's an expeditionary unit. They should be out there practicing their call-for-fire exercises and not arresting people on the streets and -- detaining. Sorry, they detain people," she continued, emphasizing the word "detaining" in an apparent reference to the military's interactions with citizens in LA, which experts have described as pushing legal boundaries.

"This is a real problem because you're chipping into military readiness. You are degrading the trust Americans have for our military," she added.

Since the beginning of this month, about 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines have been guarding federal buildings in LA, escorting immigration agents during their raids and, in at least one case, participating in a drug bust 100 miles outside the city. Marines stationed at a federal building in West LA have also detained at least one person, a veteran who was trying to pick up some paperwork from a Department of Veterans Affairs office in the building.

Contrary to Trump's depiction of LA as being engulfed by chaos, the protests he was responding to were limited to a couple blocks in downtown and were largely peaceful despite some isolated incidents of violence.

The protests have also mostly died down, but administration officials have said the troops will stay in the city for at least 60 days.

While a federal judge initially ruled that Trump overstepped his legal authority in federalizing the National Guard and ordered that the California Guard be returned to the command of Gov. Gavin Newsom, an appeals court later overturned that ruling.

The legal authority Trump used to justify sending troops to LA was Section 12406 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code. That section allows the National Guard to be federalized if the U.S. "is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation;" if "there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States;" or if "the president is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States."

Duckworth's bill targets a different legal authority. Specifically, it would amend Sections 272, 273 and 274 of Title 10. Those sections say the Defense Department can provide bases and equipment to civilian law enforcement, as well as any active-duty troops needed to maintain the equipment and train and advise law enforcement on its use.

While Trump did not invoke those sections of law for the LA deployments, legal experts have pointed to them as a possible avenue Trump could cite if he tries to use the military to achieve his goal of mass deportations. They have also been used in the past as the legal justification for troop deployments to the U.S. southern border.

With Trump and other administration officials raising the prospect of deploying troops to other cities with Democratic leaders, including Chicago in Duckworth's home state, the senator argued her bill could provide a guardrail against further LA-style troop deployments.

"The key thing is that it adds congressional oversight," Duckworth said.

In addition to narrowing the circumstances of when the military could support law enforcement, it would require the president to give Congress a written justification for the deployment if it's to help with a humanitarian crisis or major public event.

The bill also would limit the support to 14 days unless Congress specifically approves a longer deployment.

And it would amend another section of Title 10 that requires service members and federal law enforcement to have visible identification by providing more specificity on when they have to identify themselves.

Duckworth's bill comes on the heels of a separate bill from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., to overhaul the Insurrection Act, the centuries-old law that allows the military to be used to suppress "any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy."

Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act for the LA deployments, but flirted with invoking it during his first term to quell racial justice protests in 2020.

The 20-page bill from Blumenthal would strictly define when the Insurrection Act can be used and require congressional approval if the military is deployed for longer than seven days. It is backed by 21 other Democratic senators, including Duckworth.

"President Trump may not have invoked the Insurrection Act yet, but he has threatened to use our military as an instrument to crush dissent, and Congress must act quickly," Blumenthal said in a statement last week.

Blumenthal previously introduced an Insurrection Act reform bill in 2020, but it went nowhere with the Senate controlled by Republicans.

With the Senate again controlled by Republicans, neither Duckworth's bill nor Blumenthal's is likely to get a stand-alone vote.

But the bills were introduced weeks before the Senate Armed Services Committee, on which both Duckworth and Blumenthal sit, is expected to begin work on the annual defense policy bill. The policy bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, could provide an opportunity for Democrats to force debate on the issue of domestic troop deployments.

Duckworth would not telegraph whether she plans to bring up her bill during the NDAA debate, saying that "we'll see." But she argued for broad support for efforts to constrain domestic troop deployments.

"If you're a responsible leader in our legislative branch," she said, "then I would urge all of my colleagues, whether they're Democrats or not, to try to close these loopholes because these loopholes should not be there to be abused by any president of the United States, Democratic or Republican."

Related: A Veteran Was Detained by Marines. It Highlights Concerns over the Military's Growing Ties to Law Enforcement.