Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) supports President Trump’s deployment of federal resources to quell the riots in Los Angeles, but he’s not sure what authorities Trump is relying on to deploy 700 active-duty Marines to a U.S. city.

“I don’t know the particulars on what authorities exist there but my assumption is that the administration has been looking carefully at what he can and can’t do under the law. Obviously, the 1798 Act is available to them if they choose to exercise it,” Thune said, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorizes the president during a declared war, invasion or predatory incursion to detain and deport citizens of an enemy nation.

Thune argued that a federal response was “warranted” because local authorities failed to contain property destructio

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