Colorado National Guard pilots board a UH-72 Lakota to travel to Longmont to participate in fire suppression training in 2019. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Michael Hunnisett)
On June 1, 2020, National Guard troops violently helped clear peaceful protesters from an area north of the White House around Lafayette Square so then-President Donald Trump could pose for photos in front of a church. This act of unprovoked aggression came moments after Trump had called on governors to use National Guard troops to “dominate the streets.”
As Trump campaigns to reclaim the presidency, he and his close allies have made clear that the Lafayette Square episode was only a preview, and the use of National Guard units against residents in American communities could be fundamental policy in a new Trump administration.
The president can claim substantial authority over National Guard units. But guard members, who are led by governors, are deeply connected to the communities where they serve. They are as much friends and neighbors as they are armed agents of the state, and in Colorado they are frequently deployed to help residents in emergencies.
The National Guard operating against Coloradans in the manner Trump wants is unthinkable. That’s why state and guard officials in Colorado should assure residents they will do everything in their power to resist illegitimate use of units they oversee.
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The National Guard, which evolved from the state militias at the nation’s founding, provides reserve forces to the U.S. Army and Air Force. The Colorado Army National Guard and Colorado Air National Guard comprise more than 5,500 mostly part-time citizen soldiers and airmen who, when not called into national service, serve under the command of Gov. Jared Polis and Major General Laura L. Clellan, whom Polis appointed. Their deployments often involve disaster response in the state.
The president, however, whether or not a governor agrees, can federalize a state’s guard. Federalized troops serve as if they’re members of the regular armed forces under command of the Pentagon. Notable instances of federalized National Guard units deployed for domestic service include the Arkansas National Guard helping to integrate Little Rock schools under Eisenhower in 1957 and the California National Guard helping to quell civil unrest in Los Angeles under President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Many Republican governors this year sent guard members to Texas for border security, and at one point about 2,500 of them were under federal authority.
Trump, the Republican candidate for president, intends to wield sweeping authority over the National Guard. He and aides want to undertake “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” which would involve deploying National Guard forces to round up millions of undocumented residents and placing them in mass detention camps. He also, as in Lafayette Square, wants to deploy National Guard troops against domestic political opponents.
None of that should be allowed to occur in Colorado, a state that still smarts with shame for having been the site of an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals during World War II and whose residents jealously defend their First Amendment rights to speak out against the government and peacefully protest.
Polis, a Democrat, said he would oppose abuses of units under his authority.
“The National Guard should not be politicized. Governor Polis would not support the use of the Colorado National Guard to carry out extralegal uses such as those the former president appears to be advocating for,” wrote Polis spokesperson Shelby Wieman this week in response to questions from Newsline. “Governors stand united in their commitment to uphold long-standing federal laws that require Governors’ approval prior to enacting any changes impacting the National Guard, and to strong federal-state partnership that has ensured our military readiness.”
That Polis will state this position in advance of Trump’s potential misuse of the National Guard is significant and to be applauded.
But there are several ways Trump could bypass the governor’s will. Trump could federalize the Colorado National Guard and supersede the governor’s command. Federalization comes with conditions, particularly the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal military forces from participating in domestic law enforcement. But Trump could exempt troops, including federalized guard units, from that law by invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to use military forces to restore domestic law and order. The last time a president invoked the Insurrection Act was in 1992 in Los Angeles. Trump’s top immigration advisor, Stephen Miller, told the New York Times that Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act in his anti-immigrant efforts.
He would also have more alarming options, as became clear at Lafayette Square. National Guard units can operate under a hybrid command — known as Title 32 status — in which they remain under nominal state control but undertake a federal mission. William Barr, Trump’s attorney general, said the National Guard troops who helped violently clear peaceful protesters were acting under a part of Title 32 that authorizes “support of operations or missions” requested by the president. This form of authorization depends on a governor’s consent, and reports indicate that 10 of the 11 states that sent guard troops to Washington at the time were Republican-run.
In other words, even if Polis precluded the Colorado National Guard from participating in mass deportations or suppression of peaceful demonstrations, Republican governors in other states could send to Colorado their own guard members to do it under effective command of a new Trump administration.
It takes little reflection to grasp how incendiary such a development would be. Normal authority structures could start to collapse, and the source of effective countermeasures could shift from office-holders to individual troops who refuse illegal orders and Colorado community members who mobilize in defiance.
Newsline specifically asked Polis if and how he would resist a Trump-led incursion in Colorado by National Guard units from other states. His office provided no response.
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