National Guard troops under Trump’s command leave Los Angeles

Dozens of California National Guard soldiers, apparently under President Trump’s command, fled Los Angeles under cover of darkness early Sunday morning, ahead of an appeals court order to leave by noon Monday.

Administration officials did not immediately confirm whether the troops had defected. But video taken outside the Roybal Federal Building downtown just after midnight Sunday and reviewed by The Times shows a large tactical truck and four white passenger vans leaving the facility, which has been patrolled by armed soldiers since June.

Court records show about 300 California troops remain under federal control, with about 100 of them still active in Los Angeles as of last week.

“There were more people than usual and they all left; there wasn’t a single person left,” said Rosa Martinez, a protester who has been demonstrating in front of the federal building for months and was there Sunday.

The soldiers were seen briefly later that day, but were not seen again Monday afternoon, Martinez said.

The development, which forced the troops to leave, was part of a widening nationwide legal battle over control of federal troops.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued that decision late Friday, but last week softened an even harsher edict by a lower court judge that would have forced the president to give up command of state forces. Trump federalized thousands of California National Guard troops in June to quell unrest over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.

“For the first time in six months, there will be no military stationed on the streets of Los Angeles,” the California Advocate said. Gen. Rob Bonta said in a statement. “While this decision is not final, it is a welcome and challenging step in the right direction.”

Friday’s ruling came from the same three-judge panel that handed the president one of his most sweeping second-term victories this summer after finding that the California deployment could proceed under an obscure and virtually untested subsection of the law.

That precedent established “a great deal of deference” as the standard of review for mandates that have since mushroomed across the country, limiting debate even in courts where it is not legally binding.

But the so-called Newsom standard, for which California Gov. Gavin Newsom is the lead plaintiff in the case, has come under intense scrutiny and increasingly public rebuke in recent weeks, even as the Trump administration claims it gives the administration new and greater powers.

In October, the 7th Circuit, the appeals court that covers Illinois, upheld the blockade on troop deployments in and around Chicago, finding that the president’s claims contained “insufficient evidence.”

“Even with great respect to the administration’s view of the facts… there is insufficient evidence that protest activity in Illinois significantly impeded the ability of federal officials to enforce federal immigration laws,” the panel wrote.

This decision is currently under review in the Supreme Court.

In November, the 9th Circuit reversed its previous decision allowing Trump to federalize Oregon amid allegations that the Justice Department misrepresented key facts in its filings. This case is being reviewed by a larger panel of the appellate division, and a decision is expected early next year.

Despite the mounting pressure, Justice Department lawyers have doubled down on their assertion that they have near-carte authority, arguing that federal troops will forever remain under the president’s command and that courts have no role in their deployment.

When Judge Mark J. Bennett asked the Justice Department whether federal troops “could continue to be called in indefinitely” under the government’s reading of the statute at an October hearing, the answer was an emphatic yes.

“There is not a single word in the law about how long they can remain in federal service,” said Acting Deputy Solicitor. General Eric McArthur said.

For now, the fate of the 300 federalized California troops remains unclear, although the troops are currently barred from serving in California and Oregon due to court orders.

Times writers David Zahniser and Kevin Rector contributed to this report.