Editor’s note: This report has been updated to include remarks Hegseth made later in Thursday’s hearing after the report’s initial publication.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth initially sidestepped questions from a lawmaker on whether he would obey a court were it to rule that the Trump administration’s recent deployment of active-duty troops to Los Angeles was illegal.
“What I can say is we should not have local judges determining foreign policy and national security policy in the country,” Hegseth said, testifying Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee.
The secretary responded to questions from Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who pressed on the controversial use of military forces in the city in response to protests against the administration’s immigration crackdown.
“You’re not willing to say you would respect those decisions,” Khanna asked, referencing potential rulings by a district court and the Supreme Court.
“What I’m saying is: Local district judges shouldn’t make foreign policy for the United States,” Hegseth said.
RELATED
Later, when pressed again on the issue by Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Md., Hegseth stepped back from his earlier position.
“We’re not here to defy a Supreme Court ruling,” he said.
In reference to other immigration cases, the administration has argued that courts are overstepping their authority by challenging the government’s foreign policy role. Still, any deployments on U.S. soil are domestic policy and governed by law prohibiting troops from conducting law enforcement — that is unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act.
The Pentagon has approved 4,000 federalized National Guard troops and 700 Marines to protect immigration agents and federal property in Los Angeles, responding to a weekend of protests around the administration’s deportation policies.
Hegseth has approved the deployments without the approval of local officials — something that hasn’t occurred in 60 years. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has sued to remove the troops, with the case now before a district court.
In previous testimony this week, Hegseth said the deployments will last 60 days, and a Pentagon official speaking alongside him estimated they would cost $134 million.
Hegseth also said Wednesday that the military was prepared to deploy troops in other cities in response to other protests, which have spread since the weekend.
“Part of it is getting ahead of a problem, so that if in other places — if there are other riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened — we would have the capability to surge National Guard there if necessary,” Hegseth said.
The administration’s executive order approving the deployments said that the president could send troops to cities where protests were ongoing or “likely to occur,” envisioning a far broader domestic use of American forces than in past administrations.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Read the full article here
