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President Trump is deploying the National Guard to Memphis. It's part of a broader push to expand what he has called anticrime efforts around the country. Legal experts say it is testing the limits of presidential power and the use of military force. They also worry that deployments are normalizing armed troops on U.S. streets, as NPR's Kat Lonsdorf reports.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Earlier this week, Trump sat in front of reporters in the Oval Office...
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Hello, everybody. It's nice to have you here.
LONSDORF: ...And announced a federal task force will be heading to Memphis, including troops from the state's National Guard. He said it's a plan he has for many cities.
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TRUMP: Not only in Memphis - in many cities, and we're going to take care of all of them, step by step, just like we did in D.C. We have...
LONSDORF: More than 2,000 National Guard troops have been stationed in D.C. for over a month now, where they've mostly been patrolling federal property or beautifying city parks. There aren't many details on when troops would be deployed to Memphis or what exactly any law enforcement efforts would look like. But it is following a pattern. Recently, Trump has deployed the National Guard to both D.C. and Los Angeles and has mused about doing so in several other Democratic-led cities around the country.
CHRIS MIRASOLA: I have a whole bunch of concerns.
LONSDORF: Chris Mirasola is a national security law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, who specializes in issues around the National Guard.
MIRASOLA: I think, fundamentally, there are deep problems with our politics becoming accustomed to the military having a recurring, consistent role in what are frankly nonemergency situations.
LONSDORF: Trump has said that the National Guard, along with federal officials from several agencies, would be deployed to cities to fight crime, although data shows that violent crime in many of those places is decreasing. Detractors say that the military is not what's needed and point out that National Guard troops are not trained in community policing or authorized to make arrests.
There is also the legality of such a move. In D.C., Trump has the authority to do so because of how enmeshed the federal government is with the city. In Los Angeles, Trump federalized the National Guard against California governor Gavin Newsom's strong opposition, a highly unusual move. A federal judge in California recently ruled it was illegal, although Trump has already appealed.
Georgetown University law professor Rosa Brooks says that in the case of Memphis, Tennessee Governor Lee's support for Trump's plan, even as the Democratic mayor of Memphis has pushed back, makes it more legally sound.
ROSA BROOKS: The governor of Tennessee wants to invite guard troops from other states in. It may or may not be pointless, but legally speaking, it's not necessarily problematic.
LONSDORF: But, she says, it's still concerning.
BROOKS: What I do think it does is it continues to get Americans used to the idea that there are soldiers in the streets and that that's a normal thing and that as you go about your daily business, you should just get used to it. And is that intimidating? Is that chilling? It is to a lot of people.
HINA SHAMSI: Very simply put, the military should not be policing civilians.
LONSDORF: Hina Shamsi is director of the National Security Project with the American Civil Liberties Union. She worries that normalizing troops in the streets challenges centuries of U.S. laws that limit the role of the military domestically.
SHAMSI: The president is undermining them in ways that are, I think, really harmful to checks and balances, as well as our civil rights and civil liberties.
LONSDORF: Regardless, it's happening. In Memphis, Governor Lee has said that National Guard troops will be on their way, quote, "sooner rather than later." Mayor Paul Young has said he will do his best to influence how they engage with the city, and Trump has made it clear that other cities should get ready, too. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News.
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