Top military officials faced questioning over the deployments for the first time at the hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. They were pressed by Democrats over the legality of sending in troops, which in some places were done over the objections of mayors and governors.

The comments deepened the uncertainty about the Trump administration’s next steps toward Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s government.

“The military is not the method we use for law enforcement,” said retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner. “They are not trained for this, and we don’t want to put these young men and women in situations they are not trained for.”

“This withdrawal represents an unconditional surrender by the Trump administration,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “But more than that, it represents a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.”

President Donald Trump’s vow to wage the biggest domestic deportation program in American history. Here is a look at the agencies involved and how their complicated and often overlapping duties have evolved.

President Donald Trump appeared to suggest the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, saying it would be on an “equal basis” with Russia and China.

Here’s a look at the history of tear gas and why it remains so controversial.

In a phone hearing Wednesday, attorneys agreed to extend a temporary restraining order halting that deployment sought by President Donald Trump until a final judgment is issued.

The Trump administration told the Supreme Court that it wanted to deploy 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and 400 members of the Texas National Guard.

“Our founders understood that freedom cannot thrive under the shadow of military control,” retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner said. “Civilian police accountable to local leaders and bound by civil law are the right tools for maintaining order, not troops and tanks.”

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s request to allow the president to immediately deploy National Guard troops into Chicago.

National Guard troops arrived in Illinois as part of an unprecedented deployment with a directive to protect federal immigration agents “in places where there are violent demonstrations. So where might that be?

President Donald Trump’s efforts to send National Guard troops into U.S. cities — including Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago — over the objections of Democratic mayors and governors have prompted a host of questions about the president’s authority and who controls the Guard.

“It’s illegal, unconstitutional,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “It’s dangerous. It’s wrong. This is not about deportations, this is not about safety for this president. This is about authoritarianism. It’s about stoking fear. It’s about breaking the Constitution.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both potential 2028 presidential candidates, contend Trump’s troop deployments should be a matter of concern for all governors. But some Republican governors have supported Trump’s actions.

The lawsuit filed by Illinois and Chicago officials calls the looming deployment of both Texas and Illinois National Guard troops a politically motivated and unconstitutional federal overreach.