WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated denunciations of urban violence, it remains uncertain whether his administration will manage to deploy troops to several American cities.
Trump has deployed troops to cities, including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Memphis, many of which have Democratic party leadership.
The president argues that a rise in crime in recent years has made cities unsafe and that many Democrat-led cities allow violent criminals to walk the streets. The White House also cites "violent protests" at immigration facilities as hindering federal agents, arguing that National Guard troops are required to impose order.
Many Democratic city leaders and state officials push back, arguing that the federal deployments are politically motivated, aimed at boosting Trump's image rather than responding to public-safety emergencies.
Thus far, Trump's attempts to deploy troops to cities including Chicago, America's "second city," and Portland, Oregon, have been blocked by lower courts that maintain the deployments are unlawful.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the legality of the federal deployment of the National Guard, but no final decision has been announced yet.
"Lawsuits challenging Trump's authority to send National Guard troops into U.S. cities could well end up at the Supreme Court," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
"There are important legal issues at stake in these cases and local officials are outraged at what they see as an abuse of presidential power," West said.
Recent high-profile events have prompted Trump to double down on his contention that cities are unsafe.
In late November, a woman was set on fire in Chicago by a man who had 72 prior arrests on his record. Trump castigated the so-called "liberal judges" who allowed that man to walk the streets prior to the gruesome attack, despite prosecutors' calls to put him behind bars. Critics said the attack could have been avoided if the judge had incarcerated the assailant.
"They burned this beautiful woman riding in a train. A man was arrested 72 times. 72 times. Think of that. And they'll let him out again, the liberal judges will let him out again," Trump said.
Speaking from the White House, Trump has lately called on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to permit National Guard troops to be deployed to Chicago.
That came on the heels of an incident whereby a teenager was shot dead and eight others wounded after two separate shootings on the same night in downtown Chicago in November, when Trump just claimed a National Guard deployment would make Chicago "totally safe" in just a few weeks.
"And the people of Chicago want us to go there. And if you look at the crime that's taking place in Chicago in the last two weeks, just take a look. It's on the front page of every newspaper," Trump said. "It's out of control."
Pritzker and Johnson regarded any Guard deployment to Chicago as unconstitutional, contending that the city is not as dangerous as Trump claims.
Johnson referred to Trump's push for troops in Chicago as "illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous, and unnecessary," deeming the deployment a move toward authoritarianism rather than public safety.
Separately, two National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C., were shot last week, with one succumbing to her wounds.
Trump has been vocal regarding the killing, calling it an "act of evil" and a "crime against our entire nation." He ordered the deployment of 500 additional National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., following the shooting.
However, it remains unknown whether the shooting will strengthen the legal argument that National Guard units are needed in cities across the country.
Following the shooting, some netizens argued on the social platform X that the National Guard troops should never have been there in the first place and blamed the president for making the deployment. ■
