The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling on the panel’s Republican chairman to hold a hearing on President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy military forces to Chicago and other cities.
“Domestic deployment of the military into American communities raises serious issues within the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee that warrant an immediate hearing,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote in a letter Wednesday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
“Of particular relevance for this Committee is that the men and women serving in our Armed Forces are trained primarily for warfighting, not community policing and safeguarding civil liberties. Unlawfully and unnecessarily deploying troops to engage in law enforcement in local communities, instead of the duties they are trained for, undermines military readiness and endangers American communities,” he added.
Durbin contended that police power to ensure residents’ safety is a duty that rests with state and local officials, not the federal government.
“The recent threats by the President to send troops or federal officers into American cities to address local crime or other issues within state control over the objection of state officials imperil this foundational principle and the rights of all states,” Durbin wrote.
Reached for comment, Grassley's communications director, Clare Slattery, said in an email that "the Senate Judiciary Committee is in the planning stages for a hearing on the Trump administration’s effective strategies for reducing crime and protecting the American people."
Details on the timing of such a hearing were not immediately available.
Trump has indicated that he will send federal forces into cities across the country, saying “We’re going in” when asked at the White House on Tuesday whether he’d be sending National Guard troops to Chicago. Trump suggested Wednesday that he could send federal troops to New Orleans.
The comments were the latest in the Trump administration’s efforts to send troops to cities run by Democrats.
Last month, the president ramped up law enforcement in the nation’s capital as part of what he has described as an effort to crack down on crime and homelessness.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Trump had violated a federal law that prohibits using soldiers for civilian law enforcement activities when he sent the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles in June to respond to protests against the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
