Attorneys general from 22 states, including New Mexico, filed a brief Sept. 15, 2025 challenging President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., shown here on Aug. 18 stationed outside Union Station. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and 21 other states’ attorneys general on Monday lent their support to District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to the nation’s capital.
Schwalb on Sept. 4 sued the Trump administration, arguing the deployment amounts to a military occupation that violates the district’s right to self-rule.
On Monday, the states’ top prosecutors argued in a “friend of the court” brief that without the District of Columbia’s elected leaders’ consent, the troop deployment is “unlawful, unconstitutional, and undemocratic.”
They are asking the District Court for the District of Columbia to issue a preliminary injunction and “make clear that the Constitution prohibits the use of soldiers as local law enforcement.”
The attorneys general argue the deployment infringes on the police powers reserved to states and localities; federal troops should not displace local police officers; and states need their national guards to respond to natural disasters and security at high-profile events.
The attorneys general wrote that the early June troop deployment to California, which has been repeatedly extended, “serves as a warning of the harm caused by a continuous military presence in a state” as the “militarized presence” of National Guard troops “harms the economy by stoking fear and causing the public to stay home, fail to report for work, and avoid areas where the military is deployed.” Troops’ presence also heightened “tensions in communities,” the brief notes, and diverted troops from “vital state functions, such as fighting wildfires.”
“The idea of sending military personnel into American cities to patrol our streets and police our residents goes against everything this country stands for,” Torrez said in a statement. “These federal deployments of armed troops — who have no official police powers — violate our Constitution and create needless fear in our communities.”
A news release from Torrez’s office noted that while troop deployment began in California and Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump “has made clear that this is the beginning — not the end — of the military occupation of American cities.”
On Monday, Trump deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, he said, to address crime.
The other state attorneys general who filed the brief include California, Maryland, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
