State Democratic leaders said Tuesday they have been in talks about the potential of the Trump administration deploying the National Guard in Massachusetts, signaling they could move quickly to fight any effort to send troops into yet another Democrat-led state.
Aides to Attorney General Andrea Campbell declined to share details of conversations they said she’s had with other state and local leaders. But the first-term Democrat’s office said it would be ready to challenge any “unlawful deployment,” noting Campbell has backed other lawsuits challenging the deployment of troops in Washington, D.C. and California.
“The unlawful deployment of the National Guard creates unnecessary fear, undermines trust between residents and law enforcement, and aims to silence dissent against the President’s cruel policies,” Campbell said in a statement. “I stand firmly with states and local leaders resisting the President’s blatant abuse of power.”
National Guard members from Texas were visible at an Army training center in Illinois on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, as President Trump’s administration prepares to send troops to the Chicago area over the objections of Illinois’ Democratic governor and the city’s Democratic mayor.
Illinois leaders sued in an attempt to stop the deployment, the latest in a series in recent months that legal and military scholars say is an unprecedented test of the checks designed to prevent the deployment of the US military against its own citizens.
It’s not clear what, if any plans the Trump administration has for sending troops here. But given its stance on immigration, Boston has been a regular target for the president and other top administration officials, and Trump aides have said he has the “right” to call up the National Guard when he deems it “appropriate.”
Governor Maura Healey said in a separate statement Tuesday that her office has been working with the state’s own National Guard, Campbell’s office, and unnamed “law enforcement” personnel to “prepare for any scenario.”
She criticized Trump’s move to deploy the Guard in US cities, arguing the purported efforts to restore public safety is actually designed to “intimidate his political opponents and instill fear in communities.”
“There is no emergency, and no one wants this,” she said.
Trump and his top aides have regularly defended the deployments, framing them as efforts to help protect ICE facilities, particularly in Portland, Ore., and Illinois, where ICE activity has been met with protest, or in Memphis, to help fight crime. Last week, Trump suggested in a speech to military leaders that the government should use cities where he’s sought to deploy troops as “training grounds,” saying there is “a war from within.”
He has also called Portland a “war zone,” a label local officials have hotly disputed, as did US District Judge Karin Immergut, who, over the weekend, temporarily blocked Trump from sending any troops to Oregon.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout. Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross.
