Guard, not police: Troops in LA have strict legal boundaries

President Donald Trump federalized 2,000 California National Guard soldiers in the wake of the anti-ice protests in California

But as the U.S. Constitution makes abundantly clear, soldiers are not cops

President Trump deployed the troops under Title 10 of the U.S. Code

which is the same authority the president would use if deploying those same soldiers overseas

Normally, the National Guard is deployed domestically to help with weather-related events or other kinds of natural disasters, but..

From a legal perspective, it does seem to fit within what we would call the four corners of the paper

John Mollick is an intelligence officer with New York's Army National Guard

He's also a former police officer, so I thought he was in a unique position to speak about what roles the guardsmen in California will be playing while deployed

They have the inherent right to self-defense, and they have the authority to protect federal property and those that are operating within the federal agents that are operating within the law

And right now they are by enforcing immigration law. What they are not allowed to do are what would be generally considered law enforcement activities, surveillance, arrest, detainment, things where they're taking an active approach to enforcing the law

If the Insurrection Act comes into play, what changes for the National Guard troops, the Marines that have been called up

What new roles or new abilities or new functions would they be able to serve if that Insurrection Act comes into play

Yeah, so that's a challenging discussion to have because there's not a lot of legal precedent there

So what I suspect would happen is that there would be an opening of authorities a bit maybe a bit more of some support to law enforcement I can guarantee that But it would certainly make from a legal perspective it would certainly make a more clean break if you will

because the Insurrection Act is kind of a, you know, during an emergency break glass here kind

of a function. And I think that's really why, in my opinion, that the current administration or

really any administration doesn't want to have to enact that because that's such a rare case

And they certainly would get a lot of pushback in addition to what they may be receiving today should they enact the Insurrection Act

Because, again, that was written for some pretty specific actions, if you will

So I guess my answer would be I don't really know. There's just not a lot of precedent there

One thing Moloch says he does know unequivocally is just how much the National Guard instills in its members the fact they are not law enforcement officers

We are very well versed on what we can do and we can't do

And we really take a lot of pride in ensuring where we're on the right side of the law

We're not just willing now that we're, you know, working for POTUS

We're not just out there willy nilly like screw it. We're going to do whatever we want. that is antithetical, it's really anti-cultural to what the military is, truthfully

At the time we posted this video, the National Guard troops deployed to LA are still operating

under Title X, and they are the only National Guard troops currently deployed by President

Trump domestically. The President and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth both said more guardsmen

could be deployed, however, to protect federal property and personnel in other states if the

White House feels it necessary in the wake of these growing anti-immigration enforcement protests

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