Duckworth Pushes for Accountability Over Trump Administration’s Dangerous, Unconstitutional Deployment of National Guard into American Cities

Duckworth Pushes for Accountability Over Trump Administration's Dangerous, Unconstitutional Deployment of National Guard into American Cities

Senator called for SASC hearing to investigate this egregious abuse of our military

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today railed against Donald Trump's dangerous, unconstitutional deployment of National Guard troops into Chicago and other American cities during a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing. Video of Duckworth's remarks is available on the Senator's YouTube.

"President Trump has once again violated the Constitution, states' rights and Americans' rights by federalizing the Illinois National Guard and deploying Texas National Guard troops to Illinois against the wishes of democratically elected officials," said Duckworth. "We know deploying the military is not about protecting DHS officials, because these same officials are escalating their tactics every day to provoke a manufactured crisis to justify sending in the military. We know it's not about crime, because Trump literally defunded the police by slashing $800 million in public safety programs. This is about Trump's desire to crush dissent and erode our constitutional rights."

Duckworth also criticized the Trump Administration for ducking accountability and failing to provide justification for marching military troops through our own cities-and she called for an open hearing to receive testimony from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and top U.S. Department of Defense officials about this gross abuse of our military.

"The American people deserve answers as to why Donald Trump is militarizing their streets-but this Administration has refused to provide them," said Duckworth. "The President wants to use our military as his personal police force that goes into American cities, detains civilians on our bases and intimidates people who disagree with him. Who wins in that scenario? Not the American people. Not our servicemembers. Only Donald Trump, along with our enemies who will exploit our distraction."

Duckworth has forcefully pushed back against Donald Trump's abuse of our nation's servicemembers and his attempts to blur the lines between law enforcement and the military-from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and most recently Chicago, Portland and Memphis. Yesterday, Duckworth and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) led Illinois Democrats in calling on Trump rescind his order to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.

Last month, Duckworth helped introduce legislation to enhance oversight and accountability of the President's domestic deployment of the National Guard. She also joined her colleagues in filing an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit brought against Trump after he deployed thousands of members of the California National Guard and U.S. Marine Corps to Los Angeles without legal justification or approval from state or local officials. Additionally, Duckworth joined Durbin in sending a letter to Attorney General Bondi, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem, Department of Defense Secretary Hegseth and FBI Director Patel requesting immediate information regarding President Trump's imminent actions to send the military and increase federal law enforcement presence in Chicago.

In the wake of Trump's deployment of Marines and National Guard to California, Duckworth introduced the Military in Law Enforcement Accountability Act to reform gray areas in laws that Trump is exploiting to deploy members of our military to police their fellow Americans, diverting taxpayer dollars and attention away from the military's core mission and undermining the Administration's own stated goal to focus our military on warfighting.

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