Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker (Ill.) and Gavin Newsom (Calif.) are threatening to leave the National Governors Association unless the group agrees to condemn President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to their respective states.
“This is precisely the federal and interstate overreach we warned against — gubernatorial authority being trampled, state sovereignty being ignored, and the constitutional balance between states being attacked,” Pritzker wrote in a letter addressed to NGA Chair Kevin Stitt (R-Okla.).
He continued later, “The credibility of the National Governors Association — and our integrity as state executives—rests on our willingness to apply our principles consistently, regardless of which administration attacks them. Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”
“I remain hopeful that principled leadership will prevail over political calculation and we can chart a path forward together,” the Illinois governor added.
The Trump administration has said it will deploy hundreds of troops to both Illinois and California — in addition to Oregon — in an effort to crack down on crime. The Democratic-led states have rejected federal intervention and said there is no need for militarization within their jurisdictions.
The Prairie and Golden states have both filed lawsuits over the decision to deploy soldiers.
Newsom encouraged his colleagues to “denounce this infringement of state sovereignty and unequivocally tell the federal government that it is unacceptable to deploy troops from one state to another, over the objections of the Governor where troops are being sent,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It should not be difficult for state leaders, regardless of partisan affiliation, to agree that politicizing our states’ National Guard and deploying the Guard from one state into another, over the objections of the home-state Governor, harms the interests of states,” the governor added, per the outlet.
He continued, arguing that, “only states led by Governors from one party are currently bearing the brunt of this assault should not matter: history shows that norms, once broken, are difficult to repair, and the shoe can quickly be on the other foot.”
The measure comes after National Guard soldiers and Marines were sent to quell Los Angeles protests against the president’s immigration agenda earlier this year.
California was the first state to see its National Guard federalized under the second Trump administration. But since then, soldiers have been sent to Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tenn., and Portland, Ore.
A judge on Saturday temporarily blocked the deployment of soldiers to Oregon in a move decried by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
“A district court judge has no conceivable authority, whatsoever, to restrict the President and Commander-in-Chief from dispatching members of the US military to defend federal lives and property,” Miller wrote in a post on the social platform X.
“Today’s judicial ruling is one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen — and is yet the latest example of unceasing efforts to nullify the 2024 election by fiat,” he added.