The Pentagon’s withdrawal ends controversial deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland that tested presidential power and escalated clashes over immigration raids.
All National Guard troops that the Trump administration tapped to support aggressive immigration operations have left Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., according to U.S. military officials.
The demobilizations in those cities, first reported by The Washington Post, were noted on the website of the U.S. Northern Command and followed the Pentagon’s plan late last year to withdraw Guard troops.
Their departure, which according to the Northern Command occurred throughout January, signals the formal end to monthslong deployments that pitted Democratic cities against the Trump administration and tested the limits of presidential authority over the state-based military forces. By the end of the assignments, only skeleton forces of a few hundred Guard troops remained in those cities.
In Portland and Chicago, the Guard troops, who had been sent to support federal law enforcement and protect buildings, never actually operated on the streets. The move in Portland was tied up in court, and the one in Chicago was blocked by the Supreme Court.
Troops in Los Angeles were allowed on the streets despite a pending court case, but the Pentagon significantly reduced their numbers toward the end of the year.
National Guard units respond to state governors, although their troops can be placed under the president’s command. Historically, a governor’s request has almost always preceded federalization.
Mr. Trump has broken sharply from that tradition in his second term, starting with his decision to send thousands of federalized Guard troops and a contingent of Marines to counter protests against immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
President Trump federalized National Guard troops in Illinois, California and Oregon in response to contentious protests against immigration raids in major cities, at times supplementing them with other Guard troops shipped in across state lines. It was the first time a president had sent the National Guard to a state over his governor’s wishes since the civil rights era.
The deployments came amid a broader push by Mr. Trump to use the National Guard to enforce law and order.
