New Jersey Dem hopeful vows to sue Trump over troop deployments, says states would pay the price

New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill on Monday vowed to sue the Trump administration if the president were to deploy National Guard troops to the Garden State. 

Sherrill, who currently represents New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, made the comments during a town hall broadcast live on Univision 41 Nueva York. The audience asked Sherrill questions in Spanish, and she responded in English. 

An audience member who said his family had fled the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela asked Sherrill what she would do if President Donald Trump deployed federal troops to New Jersey. 

Sherrill, a former Navy veteran and federal prosecutor, said American troops “should not be on the streets of our country” – only in rare cases like an insurrection or a national crisis. She added that troops are not trained for policing missions like local law enforcement.  

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“And that’s why, as governor, should Trump try to deploy troops on our streets, I would be very opposed to that. I’d immediately take him to court and demand that he stop this – because I think it’s illegal – and ensure that here in New Jersey, people are kept safe,” Sherrill said.

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Sherrill is running against Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. 

Since returning to office in January, President Trump has either sent or threatened to send federal troops to nearly a dozen cities – including Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Memphis – that his administration has portrayed as crime-ridden and dangerous. 

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Illinois and Chicago have sued the Trump administration to stop the president from sending hundreds of National Guard troops to the Windy City. That legal challenge came after a federal judge blocked the guard’s deployment in Portland, Oregon. 

The Trump administration has defended the deployments, saying they are necessary to curb violent crime and restore law and order. Several officials have pushed back, accusing the Trump administration of overreach and warning that federal intervention only inflames the situation. 

Last month, a federal judge said the Trump administration “willfully” broke federal law by deploying Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this year over protests about immigration raids.