California sues Trump for illegally deploying the National Guard

In a statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he is suing Donald Trump and asking the court to overturn the president's "unlawful action in federalizing the California National Guard."

California authorities filed a lawsuit on Monday against US President Donald Trump for illegally deploying the National Guard under the guise of containing protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids .

In a statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he and Governor Gavin Newsom are "suing Donald Trump and asking the court to overturn the president's unlawful action in federalizing the California National Guard."

The administration's action "abuses the authority of the federal government and violates the Tenth Amendment" to the Constitution, he added. "Activating these troops for protests that local law enforcement confirmed at the time were under control is deeply unjust and disrespectful to their service and sacrifice ," Bonta said.

The troop deployment requires Newsom's consent, and this is the first time since 1965 that a U.S. president has done so "without a request from the state governor," he stressed.

"The governor of California knows how to call up the National Guard when necessary. He did it with the Los Angeles wildfires and in the summer of 2020 with some of the protests in California. So this is something that falls under Governor Newsom's jurisdiction . And he didn't authorize the use of the National Guard here, he didn't call it up," he insisted.

The White House and the Newsom administration have clashed in recent hours over Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard to contain protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids, a measure rejected by local authorities .

White House immigration policy chief Tom Homan said in an interview Sunday that Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass , also a Democrat, could be arrested. The California governor responded with a defiant, "Tom, arrest me."

Homan, known as the "border czar," clarified Monday that there are no plans to arrest the governor , but warned that the Trump administration will not tolerate anyone "obstructing law enforcement."

Donald Trump said Monday that if he were Tom Homan, he would arrest Newsom for his handling of the protests in Los Angeles . "If I were Tom, I would do it (...) Gavin likes the publicity," Trump said when asked by reporters about a possible arrest of the Democratic governor.

" He's done a terrible job . I like Gavin Newsom; he's a good person, but he's tremendously incompetent, and everyone knows that ," the Republican president added.