Former Marines in Mass. politics split on response to Trump's LA deployments

President Trump's controversial move to deploy active-duty military to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests is dividing some high-profile Massachusetts politicians who've served in the Marines.

There are now about 700 Marines in the Los Angeles area, alongside more than 2,000 National Guard troops. Their orders are to protect federal property and personnel. In many ways, the views of local veterans in the political class break down along party lines.

"The danger is, he's politicizing the military, which is exactly what dictators do," said Rep. Seth Moulton, who served four tours of duty in Iraq.

Moulton said several Marines have reached out to him in recent months with concerns about politics influencing their positions.

"I've never before had many junior officers come to me and say, 'How do you think about disobeying orders? Because we might have to do that under this commander in chief,' " Moulton said.

On the other side of the aisle, former Marine Corps officer Brian Shortsleeve, who's running for governor as a Republican, says he supports the federal intervention in Los Angeles.

"Rioting protesters waving foreign flags are violently attacking American law enforcement officers who are doing the job the law commands," Shortsleeve said in a statement.

A former MBTA chief administrator under Gov. Charlie Baker, Shortsleeve blames the current situation on Democratic governors like Maura Healey, who he said "rolled out the welcome mat for illegal immigrants."

Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss called the domestic deployment of Marines "inappropriate" and "unnecessary."

Auchincloss led missions in Afghanistan and Panama as a Marine Corps officer before being elected to federal office. He was stationed at Twentynine Palms — the same base from which Trump has called up the 700 Marines to deploy to Los Angeles.

"They are training in Twentynine Palms for urban combat against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syrian provinces. They are training for Indo-Pacific Island hopping warfare against the Chinese Communist Party," Auchincloss said. "They are not training to deescalate stressful, tense situations with fellow citizens."

Auchincloss and other Democrats fear the presence of active military at protests could lead to lethal violence. In 1992, in response to the deadly Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, a miscommunication between police and a contingent of Marines led to soldiers firing about 200 bullets into a house with three children inside.

Auchincloss said Congress should move to reign in the Posse Comitatus Act, the 147-year-old law that allows a president to use the military to suppress "rebellions" and enforce federal civil rights laws.

"We have to tighten up the laws that grant the president way too much authority over the application of the military to police power," Auchincloss said. " Next term, if and when House Democrats regain control, I could see us doing a series of reforms to an out-of-control presidency."