Huff Post: Former ICE Chief Of Staff Blasts Trump's 'Unprecedented' Move Amid LA Protests

Jason Houser criticized the administration for ordering troops to do something "not within their mission set or their training."

A former chief of staff of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ripped President Donald Trump’s administration for taking the “unprecedented” action of deploying Marines and National Guard troops to protests in Los Angeles.

Jason Houser, who served under former President Joe Biden and once was a top official in the Department of Homeland Security, told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera that troops from those forces have never accompanied his old agency on operations.

“The National Guard has been focused on the rioters and protesters but when they finally jump that line and you begin to see National Guard, Marines carrying out domestic immigration enforcement, that’s a very scary line,” he said, “both for law enforcement and also those migrants that were here legally, who had status and are now being targeted for arrest.”

Houser emphasized that the Marines’ training reflects a “lethal tool” and, in terms of national security, the U.S. needs them to keep Americans safe from “global threats.”

“But to have Marines and National Guard to begin doing knocks and bangs on doors, going to get families, children, vulnerable populations — it’s not within their mission set or their training,” Houser said.

As demonstrations continue against the president’s aggressive immigration policies, photos shared by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week showed National Guard troops protecting federal immigration agents as they made arrests in Los Angeles.

The president suggested using the National Guard to carry out his mass deportation campaign last year. Officials told The Associated Press that the troops weren’t participating in enforcement activities but were providing security for agents in the LA area instead.

Houser stressed that as the administration seeks to fulfill arrest quotas of non-criminal “vetted and screened” migrants, it’s “turning our national security apparatus away” to enforce domestic immigration matters instead.

In April, Houser struck a similar tone in a New York Times op-ed and later knocked the administration on MSNBC for engaging in “dangerous political theater” through the misuse of federal law enforcement to “drive a narrative” that migrants seeking protection under the law are here to harm Americans.

“It’s risky, it’s risky for our Constitution, it is inhumane, it is against our American values and, quite frankly, it’s getting in the way of federal law enforcement carrying out the public safety protections that we need,” he told MSNBC at the time.