Statement on The Domestic Deployment of National Guard Into U.S. Cities

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security strongly condemns the Trump Administration’s occupation of Washington, D.C. and eight other major cities, most notably Memphis, Charlotte, and New Orleans at the time of publication. The Administration’s decision to activate the National Guard and the U.S. military in urban policing, at a time when the crime rate is going down nationwide, is a dangerous act of federal overreach in a country that has scrupulously avoided the militarization of civilian affairs. This mobilization of American military forces against its own civilians sets the stage for the establishment of a de facto police state and the dismantling of the U.S. Constitution. Multiple cities have taken successful legal action against these unlawful deployments and their violations of American civil rights. As an institute dedicated to genocide prevention, we recognize how such steps can gradually lead to mass atrocity by concentrating power in the executive branch of the state, normalizing military control over daily life, and desensitizing Americans to the persecution of their fellow neighbors.

On August 11, 2025, US President Donald Trump announced he was invoking Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act (HRA) of 1973 to deploy 800 D.C. National Guard troops to the city, federalize the D.C. Metropolitan Police, and deploy various agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CPB), the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and more federal agencies under the pretense of fighting crime. Since then, the Trump Administration has deployed 2,200 guardspeople, 1,300 of whom come from outside the District. President Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency to extend federal control over D.C. Despite the administration’s assertion this is a policing action, guardspeople interviewed by CNN said their tasks are limited to patrolling and beautifying low-crime tourist areas. D.C.’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb said overall crime was down 26 percent and that every category of violent crime had already decreased by double-digit percentages relative to 2024 before the deployment. Historically, prior crime crises in D.C., such as the “Beltway Snipers,” did not warrant a national guard deployment, despite the high risk to public safety. The Lemkin Institute emphasizes that during the January 6, 2021 insurrection, President Trump claimed that the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi at the time) had sole authority to activate the D.C. national guard, raising questions about the current deployment’s legality according to his own interpretation of the law.

While these developments may appear to be nothing more than theatrics – and a gargantuan waste of US taxpayer money — there is serious reason for concern. The Trump Administration’s rhetoric justifying these deployments, Supreme Court rulings on policing, federal troop deployment, and the history of D.C.’s fight for home rule reveal the true scope of the administration’s actions and what is at stake for the United States as a whole.

The HRA was initially conceived as a compromise between D.C. residents and members of Congress who wanted to maintain control over the majority-Black district. Before the HRA, federally-appointed commissioners and members of Congress (not elected by D.C. residents) handled the administration of the district, including lawmaking, law enforcement, and budget management. The Act transferred the running of day-to-day affairs of the district to a local government and allowed D.C. residents to elect a mayor, council members, and commissioners. However, D.C. is still not a state; instead it has the status of a “federal district.” Its residents do not have any voting representatives in Congress and the President retains the right to “micromanage” local law and taxes. Additionally, the President retains control of the D.C. National Guard and may also temporarily take over the D.C. police department “for federal purposes” and “under special conditions of emergency.” This allowed, via the HRA, to uphold a historically white minority authority over a Black-majority federal district. Although D.C.’s historic Black community has been steadily pushed out of the city since the 1990s through gentrification, the city is still 43.3% Black. The Administration’s framing of crime in D.C. is deeply racially coded; framing minority ethnic groups, such as Black, Latin, and immigrant communities, as the reason for a crime “emergency” and then invoking the HRA, President Trump is actively upholding the federal government’s legacy of white minority rule and supremacy in D.C. President Trump. His strategic targeting of liberal cities, home to significant populations of color, such as Memphis and New Orleans, implies an attempt to install a D.C home rule framework across other cities in America.

The surge of federal forces into D.C. also comes amidst an escalating rollback of restrictions on how ICE conducts its raids, jeopardizing the safety of immigrants and minorities perceived to be immigrants. On September 8, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that ICE can legally use racial profiling to approach and detain suspected illegal immigrants. The Trump Administration has now vowed to ‘flood the zone’ with ICE agents in Los Angeles and other cities. Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent to this ruling, arguing the court’s ruling flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution’s fourth amendment, as ICE can now “[...] seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.” These developments are preceded by individual cases of federal agents setting up checkpoints to demand identification from passersby, like the infamous 14th Street checkpoint where ICE stopped and detained two drivers on August 14, 2025. Given ICE’s willingness to detain legal residents, such as in ICE’s recent September 4th raid on a Hyundai factory in Georgia, the Lemkin Institute does not believe ICE agents operating current or future checkpoints in D.C. or elsewhere will take measures to ensure they do not violate the due process of U.S. citizens and legal noncitizen residents. Cases of random and violent encounters with ICE and other federal agents are only likely to rise in D.C. and other major cities as the Trump Administration extends its campaign of federal militarization.

As President Trump’s occupation of D.C. nears its four-month mark, it has become clear D.C. is President Trump’s testing ground for other cities. After occupying D.C., the Trump Administration launched a September 3 ICE crackdown in Chicago, dubbed Operation Midway Blitz. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said the 500 deployed ICE agents did not give the city advance notice or coordinate with local police before provoking the Chicago population by detaining U.S. citizens and fatally shooting an immigrant, sparking massive protests. As of October 5, the Trump Administration mobilized 300 national guardspeople in Chicago, though as of November 16, the DHS, CPB, and some National Guard from Texas have left.

President Trump has now deployed the National Guard into Memphis, Tennessee, where 150 guardspeople will reinforce a federal taskforce formed on September 15 as a “large-scale saturation of besieged neighborhoods with law enforcement personnel.” During an August interview on a Memphis radio show, President Trump admitted D.C. was a “test” for a list of other cities, of which Memphis is listed as an immediate target.

In Portland Oregon, President Trump deployed the National Guard after watching old videos of 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, believing they were from 2024. Though Trump’s National Guard deployment was deemed illegal on November 8, the Lemkin Institute takes note of the broad statements made by the Trump Administration on future military deployments to Portland. Most notable were Trump’s September 27 authorization of “full force” to defend ICE facilities without defining what this means, as well as the administration’s desire to deploy the 82nd Airborne division, an elite army paratrooper assault division. Such deployments in any major city represent a grave escalation that is likely to cause further violence on a national scale, especially because ICE agents have routinely responded to protests with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Recently ICE has also dramatically and unnecessarily escalated its tactics, as seen in its October 2 raid in the South Shore area of Chicago. During this raid, ICE agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter at 1 am, broke into people’s residences without warrants, forced residents to gather in the street – including children without clothing — ziptied, detained, and, in some cases, disappeared people, US citizens and immigrants alike, including children.

On 30 September Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo directing the FBI, DEA, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to arrest “rioters” at ICE facilities, giving the administration more leeway to crack down on protests and escalate tensions. The South Shore action and the Bondi memo represent radicalizations in the state use of force and pose a high risk of harm to civilians.

Through these actions, the Trump Administration threatens to turn the United States’ cities into the war zones it already claims they are.

The Lemkin Institute has no reason to believe ICE and other affiliated federal agents will not hesitate to fire lethal ammunition at civilians in any context, no matter how unwarranted.

The Trump Administration’s federal occupations of major cities is more than just an expensive stunt to pander to a nativist voter base. It marks a grave escalation in the authoritarian turn of the United States and pushes America further down the path to potential genocide through the deliberate targeting of racial minorities, dissenters, as well as the most vulnerable and impoverished people.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security condems in the strongest possible terms the actions of President Donald Trump, his cabinet, and those federal agents who have used ICE, the National Guard, and other agencies to harass innocent civilians. The Lemkin Institute calls upon media organizations, reputable social media content creators, civil rights groups, and U.S. think tanks focusing on domestic policy issues to provide clear-sighted and integrated coverage of these federal occupations. Cities like Los Angeles and D.C. cannot be forgotten as attention shifts to Portland, Memphis, and Chicago. Reporters and those on the ground must not back down and must continue to emphasize Trump's authoritarian patterns so that Americans and observers across the world can understand the gravity of this high stakes moment in American history.

Moreover, noting President Trump’s remarks to the generals and admirals of the U.S. military that he intends to use American cities as “training grounds” to wage “a war from within,” the Lemkin Institute also calls upon every member of the U.S. national guard and professional military to remember their oath to the Constitution and the American people. As Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth actively weakens the military’s oversight mechanisms, the responsibility to discern illegal orders and take appropriate action rests on every officer and soldier from the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the privates fresh out of basic training. It is now the responsibility of military personnel of all ranks to prevent the authoritarian abuses against the same American people our brave service members were sworn to protect. The Lemkin Institute lauds Senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and Representatives Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan, and Jason Crow for reminding the administration and the American people that disobeying illegal orders is a non-controversial legal and patriotic duty of all uniformed servicemembers.

Finally, the Lemkin Institute commends the actions of governors, mayors, activists, and everyday people around the country for their efforts to stand up to the Trump Administration’s continuing encroachments on the civil liberties of their communities, their neighbors, and fellow Americans. The Lemkin Institute also expresses its support for District Judge Jia Cobb’s November 20 ruling which declared the deployment in D.C. illegal. As the Trump Administration pivots the focus of its “war from within” to target vague threats, like ANTIFA (and anyone espousing ill-defined “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalist” views), community organizing and collective action will continue to be some of the most important tools for preserving American freedoms. Even as the National Guard deployments fade from the headlines and federal operations shift to new cities, the American people must remain vigilant, aware, and united in opposition to the Trump Administration’s deployments if they wish to retain their democracy.