United States
Moving Toward Military Rule to Suppress Peoples Rising in Defiance of Impunity
Washington, DC, August 16, 2025
Repeatedly, weekly and even daily, in every state across the United States, millions of working people and peoples from all walks of life have stood up to oppose the tyranny and impunity of the Trump administration and the many lawless attacks of the repressive forces commanded by the executive power. Actions defending federal and health care workers, the rights of immigrants and refugees, standing against genocide in Palestine and war against Iran, rejecting use of the military and expansion of detention camps, the police racist killings and brutality against youth, and more, have regularly been taking place and continue. There is great anger with the direction U.S. President Donald Trump is taking the country and the restructuring of the state in violation of what is deemed to be the spirit of the U.S. Constitution.
There is also widespread opposition to the anti-people and anti-social pro-war budget passed in a manner people across the United States from all walks of life find unacceptable.
Demands for an alternative are growing and many are calling for fundamental change, including a democracy of the peoples' own making, which empowers them to govern and take all the decisions which affect their lives. They are also fiercely opposing U.S. violations of international rule of law and use of force to settle conflicts and impose U.S. dictate.
The existing institutions such as Congress and the Supreme Court as well as the presidency itself, and the electoral system, have shown themselves to be dysfunctional, anti-people and exacerbating problems. Trump, like former presidents Biden and Obama before him, is acting to restructure the state in a manner even more favorable to the private oligarchs and their demand to secure more public funds for their own narrow interests.
For Trump, opposition to his orders, which is widespread, also lays the groundwork for justifying the need for military rule, or at least use of the military as necessary to safeguard the country and protect it from "rioters" and "gangs" and what are widely recognized as dysfunctional institutions like Congress and the Courts.
One can already see how readily Trump is using the military inside the country to impose his dictate. The use of National Guard in Washington, DC, and federal takeover of the DC police, with threats to do the same in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, are just the latest actions. 850 National Guard and 500 more federal agents from ICE, Border Patrol, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and FBI are policing DC, along with 6,600 DC police, Park police, Capitol police, U.S. Marshals, and Secret Service. At present it is the largest police presence per capita of anywhere in the country, with one officer per 100 people.
The DC metro area has the third largest Black population in the country of 1.8 million and it is the Black neighborhoods that are being targeted, as well as unhoused people. Immigrant workers are also being brutally attacked and detained, even while working. As one worker called out while pinned to the ground by a masked gang of policing forces, "I am a worker! I have done nothing. I am not a criminal!" This attack was done on the National Mall, witnessed by visitors from all over the world. Such attacks, which are increasing, are meant to show these gangs of masked federal police can act with impunity against anyone, anywhere. Trump has also now federalized National Guard troops from six states, West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Ohio, with support from their governors. Vermont's governor refused, as it is governors who command their state Guard and can refuse their deployment. This adds another 1,100 troops, making the total in DC more about 2,300. They will now be armed with M17 pistols and authorized to stop and detain people. The entire operation is an occupation of DC and a live exercise in having troops and federal agents work together against people guilty of no crime. As demonstrators are now chanting, From DC to Palestine, Occupation Is a Crime!
Many arbitrary check points have been set up with people forced to
stop and charged for broken taillights or not wearing a seat belt or
more serious fabricated charges -- to make such policing normal.
At one checkpoint more than 100 people gathered to reject this attack,
chanting "Go home fascists."
Washington, DC, August 11 and 16, 2025
While the Constitution does give the president police powers, like
executive orders, as part of his oath to "faithfully execute the Office
of President of the United States," Trump is striving to use them to
make law and determine crime and punishment, especially for inside the
country. He is
striving to do so whether Congress and the Courts agree, hence his
claims that he will not adhere to rulings by "activist judges." Already
he has gone against court rulings, such as those concerning sending
people to the infamous Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), the maximum
security prison in El Salvador.
The use of the military in Los Angeles and now at detention camps in Florida, as well as the detention camp at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and again establishing the camp at Fort Bliss, Texas, among others, are obvious examples of moves towards the establishment of military rule. However, these are not the only indications that the U.S. state is moving toward military rule even though the significance of other actions may not be as clear. Some of the most significant are examined below, including the war exercise in Los Angeles which, along with other examples blurs the lines between civilian and military authority, as well as birthright citizenship.
Occupation of Los Angeles
Organized resistance in Los Angeles has united the fighting forces, with
more than 60 organizations in action together, February 18, 2025. The
resistance has persisted and succeeded in getting the majority of the
military out of LA.
In Los Angeles, Trump is not only conducting a war exercise inside the country targeting the people of greater Los Angeles, trying to make this acceptable. The people have firmly shown their rejection and defiance, standing up for the rights of all. Their resistance has now forced most of the troops out of the city.
Trump is also seeking to impose a unified command structure for the military, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE,) Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and other federal agencies, as is also occurring in DC and at the southern border. By having them engage in actions together, the various commanders become familiar with each other and the usual separation between civilian and military forces is eliminated on the ground. The contention and competition among them are also limited, as they engage in common raids and attacks. The forces themselves are trained to carry out what they know to be illegal and brutal actions. All of this is very necessary if efforts to impose military rule are to succeed in the future.
Trump is also testing the grounds for the response of state and local elected officials. By ordering the California National Guard to occupy Los Angeles, he directly tested the authority of California Governor Gavin Newsom. It is Newsom who has the authority to order the California Guard into action, to refuse to do so and to order them to stand down. He did not do this, serving to avoid an open military confrontation with the President. Trump thus got his answer that even in a large sanctuary state, the Governor would not act against him when he used the state Guard for his own purposes and against the people of the state. Whether other governors, like those of Illinois and New York, also large sanctuary states, will do the same, or Newsom will do so again, remains to be seen.
Trump regularly uses language like "invasion" and "rebellion" as part of preparing ground for use of the military inside the country. For Los Angeles he specifically referenced Title 10 of the U.S. Code § 12406 which gives the president authority to federalize National Guard troops in the event: "(1) the United States, or any of the Commonwealths or possessions, is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation; (2) there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States; or (3) the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States."
None of these criteria were present in Los Angeles, a fact emphasized by local officials like the mayor. The law also says, "Orders for these purposes shall be issued through the governors of the States."
Governors must give consent and can refuse to do so, as some did when then President Bush was mobilizing the National Guard to fight in Iraq. Governors are the Commander-in-Chief of their state Guard and have authority over them. Newsom can order the California Guard to stand down, as many protesters are demanding. He instead went to court, and the case is still pending.
It is also the case that it is drilled into military officers that their role is for use in foreign wars, not against people in the U.S. Conducting these live war exercises inside the country, in DC, LA and at the southern border, is a means to break down this standard and unite the military forces. Trump has so far used the Army, Marines and Navy in these actions.
Protests in Monrovia, a city in Los Angeles County, denounce ICE raid on Home
Depot that led to death of worker Roberto Carlos, killed in traffic
when he fled the raid on August 14, 2025.
Blurring Lines Between Civilian and Military Authority
It is in the collective consciousness of the people of the U.S. that part of the struggle against tyranny is blocking the power of the military. Civilians are in charge, the President as Commander-in-Chief, heads of the Pentagon, Homeland Security, etc. are all civilians. Coming out of the Civil War, this consciousness also includes strong opposition to use of the military inside the country.
The Constitution gives Congress, not the military, the power to declare war. It also gives Congress the power to fund the military, but this is limited to only two years at a time. The Constitution, in the second amendment, enshrines the right of the people to have armed militias. These measures were meant to keep the military and tyranny in check. While Congress has long since given up their authority to declare war, civilian control of the military is still a requirement.
Trump, with the task of breaking the bounds of the Constitution, is seeking to undermine this collective consciousness among the people and the military. State National Guard, for example, are known to assist in emergencies, like hurricanes, floods, fires, etc. That is accepted by the people. Now, Trump is attempting to make the use of the Army inside the country on a long-term basis acceptable, the new normal. For example, for years now having both the Texas National Guard and currently more than 8,500 active-duty troops at the border with Mexico. Like Los Angeles and DC, the border deployments are also a means to have the military, ICE and CBP work together.
In the name of "assisting" policing agencies on the southern border, the military dispatched U-2 spy planes, surveillance drones and helicopters. Two Navy warships surveil the borders and coasts round the clock. A Stryker brigade combat team of about 4,000 soldiers and a general support aviation battalion (GSAB) of about 650 were sent to the border in March. The Stryker brigade is known for their rapid deployment and versatility, using Stryker armored combat vehicles. This is an eight-wheeled armored platform that is faster and has more firepower than tanks. The GSAB brings aviation muscle -- UH-60 Black Hawks for command duties and evacuations and CH-47 Chinooks for heavy lifts.
All of this is not only providing another means for unified command
and common action by the military and civilian forces. It also puts in
place a formidable combat force ready to invade Mexico -- something
Trump has threatened claiming it is needed to stop the drug cartels. It
is known that the cartels are armed and protected by the U.S., so
invasion and control of Mexico is the aim. In addition, Trump has now
sent 4,000 Marines and sailors into the Caribbean, threatening military
intervention in international waters and against Venezuela and others.
Warships, reconnaissance aircraft, a guided-missile cruiser and attack
submarines are being deployed.
In addition, the Pentagon has seized public lands to create two strips of land along the 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) U.S. border with Mexico and turned them into "military zones" that are part of nearby U.S. military bases. Both are border-crossing areas commonly used by migrants, especially those seeking asylum.
One is near El Paso, Texas, where resistance to the attacks against
immigrants and militarization of the border have long been organized
under the banners, Not in Our Name! Not in Our Community! The
"military zone" is about 100 kilometers long. The other is in New
Mexico, and is larger,
about 18-meters wide and 270-kilometers long (60 feet by 170 miles). It
involves about 110,000 acres of public lands, used by hikers and
hunters, where only the military can now enter. As Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth put it, "This is Department of Defense property." Making it
very clear,
Hegseth added: "Any illegal [attempt] to enter that zone is entering a
military base -- a federally protected area. You will be detained. You
will be interdicted by U.S. troops and Border Patrol working together."
It is significant that the military is simply seizing public lands
and thus taking over direct control of land along the border, which
commonly is in civilian hands, including local and state authorities.
Tribal lands of Indigenous Peoples are also along the border and, it is
suspected, they could be targeted.
Other federal lands along the border which could be confiscated as "military zones" include parks and wildlife sanctuaries in California, Arizona, and Texas, like Big Bend National Park, Border Field State Park, Seminole Canyon State Park, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. States like Texas could also turn over state lands. Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" is built on land confiscated from the Big Cypress National Preserve, itself part of Indigenous lands.
In addition, the military is detaining migrants and making detention by the military acceptable. While they are supposedly handed over to Border Patrol, what happens on the ground is likely different.
More than 100 migrants were detained by the military and criminalized, charged with "violations of security regulations," which carries a harsher penalty of a $100,000 fine and a year in jail. The cases were dismissed as the judge determined there was no probable cause to think those charged had knowingly entered a military zone.
The U.S. has a judicial system that separates criminal and civilian matters. At present, immigration-related violations are dealt with in civilian immigration courts. Migration is a civilian, not criminal, issue, though in recent years the government has tried to turn it into a criminal matter. Now it is also involving the military in doing so. This effort which creates the basis for military intervention is yet another means to blur this distinction, criminalize migrants, and involve and justify use of the military in detention.
It is also the case that a massive increase in privately-run government detention camps is taking place. The brutality and inhumane conditions against people guilty of no crime is notorious.
Use of military facilities is also taking place. Fort Bliss, in the desert near El Paso, Texas, is again being used, with tents and cages for 5,000 people being constructed at a cost of about $1.26 billion.
People of El Paso, with nurses playing a key role forced the Fort Bliss detention camp used to detain unaccompanied children from 2016-2017 and from 2021-2023, to close. That camp was known for its severe abuse of children. Like the occupation of LA, Trump is targeting an area known for its resistance, trying to humiliate and pacify people. No doubt the people of El Paso and sister city Juárez will again speak out in their own name and for their community, demanding closure of the camp and an end to detention and deportations.
National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas, representing 1,700 nurses
from four El Paso hospitals, takes part in a march to the local
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office to protest the forced
separation of families and detention of immigrant children, June 19,
2018.
Fort Dix in New Jersey is to have 3,000 people, and Camp Atterbury, a National Guard base in Indiana, will also be used. Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, Florida and a 2,000-person detention facility at the Camp Blanding National Guard training center in Northeast Florida are also being considered. As well, military planes are being utilized for deportations.
Further, Trump in June said he would be sending 700 Marines to "support" ICE operations in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. The first 200 deployed to Florida July 3. Two hundred each are also deploying to Louisiana and Texas. In addition, Trump has gotten governors in some states to activate their National Guard to "assist" ICE raids in their states even though no emergency exists. So far, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee, Virginia, and South Dakota have deployed troops. Three others – Nevada, Louisiana, and South Carolina – are in the process of approving deployments. All of these provide live exercises for joint actions by military and civilian forces and increased federal command.
"Alligator Alcatraz" and Use of Military's JAG as Immigration Judges
In Florida, Governor DeSantis, using emergency powers and fast-track measures commandeered land in the Everglades, part of the Big Cypress National Preserve, to create what state officials now call "Alligator Alcatraz." Florida officials have no shame in being associated with the now closed Alcatraz prison in California, notorious for its brutality and horrendous conditions.
"Alligator Alcatraz" is a tent city, run on generators and
housing people in cramped cages during hurricane season. The
tents regularly flood, and massive swarms of mosquitoes are
common. As an immigrant lawyer for a person detained put it,
"I've never seen treatment so deliberately cruel." Conditions
are so inhumane at the camp that there has already been a hunger
strike demanding edible food, water, medical care and access to
family and lawyers.
"Alligator Alcatraz" is widely opposed by the Indigenous Peoples
and residents who lined the highway to demand it not be built.
The Miccosukee and Seminole, who have been land and water
protectors on these lands for centuries, are demanding its
closure and rejecting this attack on their sovereignty.
Legal action has also blocked additional construction,
preventing plans to build beyond the existing 3,000 beds. A
court ruling August 22 has also now required state
officials and ICE to stop sending people to the the detention
camp. They are required to remove generators, gas,
industrial lighting fixtures, fencing, sewage, and other waste and waste
receptacles within 60 days, which would effectively shut the
camp down.
The judge echoed the stand taken by the Miccosukee and environmental
groups who brought the lawsuit, ruling that the camp causes
"irreparable harm" to the environment and that Florida officials "consulted with no stakeholders or
experts and did no evaluation of the environmental risks." Resistance
continues to immediately shut this camp down.
Florida Governor DeSantis said the ruling "is not going to deter us," and that the camp will remain operational. He also announced yet another detention facility to be in a state prison, Baker Correctional Institution, all in service to the federal government.
Trump, while visiting "Alligator Alcatraz" with DeSantis in July, said he would approve Florida's plan to "expedite" deportations by having Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers in the National Guard work as immigration judges. They would get six weeks of training for what is extremely complicated, immigration and asylum law.
Use of JAG for "expedited" deportation is not only another means to deprive people being illegally deported of due process, as is widely occurring. It also opens the door to use JAG everywhere. The significance also lies in putting in place use of the military and its ability to be judges on civilian matters. While now it is to be for immigration matters, once in place, it could extend far more broadly.
Another example of blurring the lines between civilian, criminal and military matters is having ICE secure Social Security files, which are civilian and nothing to do with criminal law enforcement. It is well known that such files would be shared by all the federal policing agencies and no doubt the military as well. Trump is also now asking for the files on people from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), Medicare, and voter rolls. Voter rolls show how people registered, whether as Republican, Democrat, or independent or other parties.
Securing these files and handing them over to federal policing agencies eliminate the standard of separating civilian and criminal matters. It is a means to criminalize all those arbitrarily designated by the executive as "security threats," while also opening the door for the military to further engage in civilian matters.
Birthright Citizenship
President Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship is one of the more blatant efforts to eliminate Constitutional restrictions. His broad use of executive orders and arbitrary actions against federal workers and agencies are also means of doing so, as are actions to seize public funds already appropriated by Congress for executive purposes.
Birthright citizenship is contained in the 14th Amendment and part of the victory over the system of slave labour in the Civil War, with the people enslaved decisive in this victory. It states in part: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." It also provides for due process and equal protection of the law for all persons.
Trump is attempting to use the phrasing "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" to claim that people born in the U.S. are not automatically citizens. With this order he targets babies born to a mother "unlawfully present in the United States" or when the mother's presence was "lawful but temporary," and the father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The many women lawfully present temporarily would include all those on a work or student visa.
An important part of the order is to put in place that the executive decides who is and is not a citizen and who is and is not "under its jurisdiction" and therefore a person who has the rights to due process and equal protection. Impunity of the executive is such that all those undocumented could be characterized as such. Students opposing Palestine whose visas are arbitrarily canceled could be considered no longer under U.S. jurisdiction and robbed of their rights to have their day in court. Already, Trump claimed people he illegally sent to El Salvador, including a citizen sent by "mistake," were no longer under U.S. jurisdiction.
When it comes to citizenship, given the thoroughly racist character of the U.S. state and its backward direction, there is concern that all those of African descent – who previously were not citizens, not even considered human beings with rights, but property – will be targeted next. The same can be said for Indigenous Peoples and those from Puerto Rico. Citizenship, or lack of it, is an instrument of the state used to divide working people and justify government efforts to deny rights, as is occurring daily.
The executive order was immediately challenged, including by 18 states, San Francisco, D.C., and advocacy groups. Four federal district court judges all said it was unconstitutional and three issued nationwide, or universal injunctions blocking Trump from enforcing it.
The Supreme Court heard the case on an emergency basis and on June 27 ruled that the lower courts could not issue universal injunctions. This is considered a win for the presidency as it makes it more difficult to stop this order, and executive orders in general. The Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the order. Many of its rulings, like this one, show how it acts as an arm of the executive, meeting its needs, and a reason today that it is discredited.
Given the restrictions dictated by the Supreme Court, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class action lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire to grant a class-wide injunction blocking enforcement for all those who would not qualify for birthright citizenship under the executive order. A similar motion was filed in Maryland. On July 10, 2025, federal Judge Joseph Laplante granted the ACLU's request, certified a class of born and unborn babies who would be deprived of their citizenship and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the order from being enforced upon that class. A class-wide injunction was also issued for the Maryland case.
Trump's order was to take effect on July 27. So far, the administration has not challenged the class-wide injunctions, while other cases concerning birthright citizenship are still pending. It is possible Trump will try to get states, which issue birth certificates, commonly used for proof of citizenship, to refuse to do so if the criteria in his order are not met. States like Florida and Texas may be willing.
Across the country people are uniting to say No Human Being is Illegal, and rejecting these efforts to divide the people using manipulation by the federal government using citizenship, visas, or lack of documentation. Everyone has a right to participate equally as members of the polity and that is the kind of democracy people are striving for -- one that unites and involves all in making decisions that affect their lives.
Conditions Cry Out for Change which Favors the People
Significance must be given to all these moves toward military rule which, given U.S. history, could be established with a civilian president. This is a period of transition, where conditions are crying out for change that favors the people but authorities, like the president, stand in the way.
Favoring the peoples is the reality that the ensemble of human relations – all the relations humans enter into with each other and with nature, individual, collective, social — shows that political empowerment of the people can resolve problems and provide a new pro-social, anti-war direction for the country.
The battle of democracy to move the character and quality of
democracy forward to meet modern times, to a democracy of the peoples'
own making, is crucial. It is an integral part of the broad and defiant
organized resistance taking place across the United States. It is this
resistance which is
decisive to block the dangers ahead and bring forward new constitutions
and new institutions that provide accountability and guarantee the
rights of all.
(Photos: @noactiontoosmall, NAACP, @sal9009.bsky.social, National Nurses United, PSL.)
This article was published in
Volume 55 Number 7 - July-August 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/MS55071.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca