My column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today.

Bruce Ledewitz: If Lincoln could do it, Trump can do it, but he shouldn’t

Special to the Post-Gazette

Jul 7, 2025

4:30 AM

The late, great constitutionalist Charles Black used to ask his law school students why Abraham Lincoln did not ask the U.S. Supreme Court for an injunction when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter.

Aside from the inherent absurdity of that idea, Lincoln did not need permission from the courts or Congress to defend federal property and federal interests. That is the President’s core responsibility. (Ismail Hernandez gave other parallels two Sundays ago.)

Trump could do it

Yet, some critics of President Donald Trump’s decision to call out the California National Guard and the military to quell anti-deportation riots in L.A. sound like they think that Lincoln should not only have gone to court, but that he should have asked the Governor of South Carolina for permission before he responded. 

No, Trump did not need permission from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

California’s pending lawsuit against the federal government over the call-up does raise some narrow legal issues. The long-standing Posse Comitatus Act does not allow the military to be used for ordinary law enforcement. But, by most media accounts, the military was used in L.A. to guard federal property, which is not unusual or unlawful.

The constitutional issue in L.A. was clear and overwhelmingly in Trump’s favor. Federal law allows the president to federalize a state’s national guard when domestic unrest threatens the faithful execution of federal law.

Clearly, the riots in L.A. were impeding the ability of ICE — the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — to carry out deportations. Indeed, such interference was the purpose of the demonstrations.

Does that mean Trump could do it again, elsewhere? Yes.

If Trump was acting lawfully, why are people so mad about what he did?

Reasons to be angry

There are at least three defensible reasons for the intense opposition.

First, he overstated the threat to ICE agents for political gain. He campaigned in 2024 on opposing disorder. Riots against his policies increase his support. Same for tough and threatening responses to disorder. It is in Trump’s interest to exaggerate unrest, not to defuse it.

Second, the raids were staged in California also for political gain. California is a blue state. Are there no undocumented immigrants in the Republican-led states of Texas and Florida? Trump is not acting in good faith in carrying out the laws.

These are legitimate grounds for objecting to Trump’s policies. But when you elect someone like Donald Trump, partisanship and recklessness are what you get. No court can enforce responsible government.

But the main reason people are mad is that these deportation raids on local businesses are not removing the immigrants that Trump promised to remove. Trump campaigned on the platform that undocumented immigrants are a threat — they are murderers, rapists and drug dealers.

This argument convinced millions of American voters, including many in the immigrant community. They thought Trump was going to deport troublemakers.

Instead, these raids pull in ordinary, hard-working people who are just living their lives and minding their own business. They are not living on government benefits, for which they are mostly ineligible, but they are paying taxes, including shoring up the Social Security system.

They are not criminals. In fact, there were reports that Trump was going to cut back the raids when it became obvious he was hurting the American economy. The raids have since resumed, with a claimed, but unclear, priority on criminals.

Trump lied

Why is the government disrupting schools, businesses and farms? Will you find criminals there?

Trump lied about immigrants. There are undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. They are immediately subject to deportation. Why not just deport them?

Why not leave Pittsburgh, which cancelled its International Parade for fear of ICE raids, alone?

It is true that every undocumented person living in America is breaking the law. Every such person is subject to deportation if given suitable due process protections. But since America’s birthrate is not even replacing its workforce, why not create a path for amnesty, instead?

Would that be unfair to the people who have immigrated legally? Maybe, but I don’t hear them complaining.

Americans believe a lot of nonsense these days. But the biggest nonsense may be that immigrants are a threat. The truth is that America has benefited tremendously from immigration, both documented an undocumented.

Americans probably know that where unskilled labor is concerned. I doubt many Americans want the jobs that some immigrants take. And since the White House is trumpeting the rise in blue collar income since Trump took office, it is hard to argue that immigrants depress wages.

But immigration does not just fill unskilled jobs. Most of the engineers working in America today are foreign born. The foreign students that Trump keeps threatening bring wealth and talent to America. Foreign doctors help fill the shortage in medical personnel. Immigrants provide a lot of the brain power in Silicon Valley.

Harmful but legal

Immigrants, unskilled and skilled, don’t take away jobs. Immigrants help the economy grow and provide even more good jobs.

The ICE raids in LA hurt the immigrants rounded up. But they hurt the rest of us too. Nevertheless, they are legal and protecting the agents involved is constitutional.

Bruce Ledewitz is professor of law emeritus at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. He writes every other Monday. The views expressed do not represent those of Duquesne University. His previous article was “Donald Trump’s Iranian mistake.”

First Published: July 7, 2025, 4:30 a.m.