The National Guard is not meant to be used as law enforcement unless there has been a disaster. This would be a abuse of the Guard and the first step to a police state. This would be so typical of Trump who clearly is a wanna be Putin.
Trump is the guy that favors smaller government. No, the guard isn't going to be deployed like ICE. They aren't trained for it, didn't sign up for it, and is well apart from their purpose.
Trump can't call up the National Guard for the purpose of "law enforcement". He can ask, nicely, and the governors might order it. But Trump himself does not have that authority and he cannot legally order the US Army or the US Air Force to enforce domestic policy, that is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. He might try to order the Navy or Marines but they would most likely tell him to pound sand.
Trumps NPD be damned. If he wants to get in a pissing match with the US Military he is going to get a real taste of humility.
The
Posse Comitatus Act is a
United States federal law (
18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20
Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878 by
President Rutherford B. Hayes. The purpose of the act – in concert with the
Insurrection Act of 1807 – is to limit the powers of the
federal governmentin using
federal military personnel to enforce
domestic policies within the
United States. It was passed as an amendment to an army appropriation bill following the end of
Reconstruction, and was subsequently updated in 1956 and 1981.
The Act only specifically applies to the
United States Army and, as amended in 1956, the
United States Air Force. While the Act does not explicitly mention the
United States Navy and the
United States Marine Corps, the
Department of the Navy has prescribed regulations that are generally construed to give the Act force with respect to those services as well.
The Act does not apply to the Army National Guard and the AirNational Guard under state authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state's governor. The United States Coast Guard, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, is not covered by the Posse Comitatus Act either, primarily because although the Coast Guard is an armed service, it also has both a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission.