DEMOCRACY WATCHPoliticizing Federal Troops in U.S. Mirrors Use of Military in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s
In his second term as president, Donald Trump has deployed U.S. military forces in rarely used roles in domestic law enforcement. As a political scientist who studies civil-military relations, I recognize the fundamental problems of militarizing domestic law enforcement, which the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits. With Trump’s continued militarization of law enforcement, the United States is entering largely uncharted waters. But in other countries, including Chile and Argentina, this is familiar territory.
In his second term as president, Donald Trump has deployed U.S. military forces in rarely used roles in domestic law enforcement.
Besides sending military troops to Los Angeles to counter protests over immigration raids, Trump sent the National Guard to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., claiming crime in the city is “out of control.”
As a political scientist who studies civil-military relations, I recognize the fundamental problems of militarizing domestic law enforcement, which the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits.
Militarizing law enforcement risks using excessive force against civilians by troops trained for warfare. And it undermines a constitutional principle, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, that limits the coercive power of the state against its citizens.
A more menacing problem, however, is politicizing the military through association with partisan politics. That erodes public trust in the armed forces.
With continued militarization of law enforcement, the United States is entering largely uncharted waters.
But in other countries, including Chile and Argentina, this is familiar territory. There, established democracies broke down in the 1970s into military dictatorships.
In the years before these breakdowns, the militaries in both countries were broadly opposed to meddling in politics.
However, civilian elites could not resolve their own governance failures. They exacerbated civil unrest and economic instability and successfully encouraged the military to intervene.
Trump Administration Tactics
Three Trump administration tactics mirror those of officials in Chile and Argentina who politicized their militaries.
The first is priming the public to focus on exaggerated threats to society. Trump administration officials have sought to “liberate” Los Angeles. They have touted arrests of the “… Worst of the Worst Criminal Illegal Aliens” in Los Angeles.
Priming the public this way establishes a danger so great that ordinary – civilian – resources are an insufficient response. Military resources become the solution.
Emblematic of this tactic is Trump’s executive order deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C. He falsely declared a “crime emergency” in the capital so great as to “undermine critical functions of Government and thus the well-being of the entire Nation.”
The D.C. deployment has opened the door to Guard deployments in other cities. Deployment to multiple cities has the potential to normalize the presence of troops in communities nationwide.
Latin American conditions in the 1970s were far more dire. Yet there, too, rather than find political solutions, elected leaders sounded alarms and looked to the military.
The months before Chile’s coup in 1973 were marked by rationing, strikes and street protests.
