By JOHN RABY and JONATHAN MATTISE, Associated Press

Courts in two states will hear arguments Monday on the legality of the deployment of the National Guard, including the use of troops on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, and from West Virginia as part of President Donald Trump’s enforcement efforts in the nation’s capital.

Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities has unleashed a whirlwind of lawsuits and overlapping court rulings.

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Here’s what to know about the latest legal efforts on the issue:

Tennessee court addresses Guard deployment in Memphis

Monday’s hearing on the Memphis deployment is before Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal in Nashville.

Democratic state and county officials contend in a lawsuit that Republican Gov. Bill Lee cannot deploy the Tennessee National Guard for civil unrest unless there is rebellion or invasion, and even then, it would require action by state lawmakers.

Since their arrival on Oct. 10, National Guard troops have been patrolling neighborhoods and commercial areas of Memphis, including near the iconic Pyramid in downtown, wearing fatigues and protective vests that say “military police.” Officials have said Guard members, who are armed, have no arrest power.

Trump announced in September that the National Guard would accompany authorities from a slew of federal agencies as part of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force.

Members of the National Guard stand watch at the intersection of B.B. King Blvd. and Beale Street, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Democratic Mayor Paul Young, who is not involved in the lawsuit, said he never requested that the Guard come to Memphis. But after Trump made the announcement and Lee agreed, Young and others have said they wanted the task force to focus on targeting violent offenders.

Since they arrived Sept. 29, the federal agencies have made more than 1,500 arrests and issued thousands of traffic citations, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Marshals Service. Arrests have been made on charges ranging from homicides and drug and weapons violations to immigration warrants. Lee has said the National Guard would “play a critical support role” for local law enforcement.

Judge considers West Virginia deployment in D.C.

West Virginia is among several states that sent National Guard members to Washington, D.C., to support Trump’s crime-fighting efforts. Last month a West Virginia judge asked attorneys for the state to address whether Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s deployment of up to 300 Guard members to the nation’s capital in August was legal.

A civic organization called the West Virginia Citizen Action Group says in a lawsuit that Morrisey exceeded his authority. Under state law, the group argues, the governor may deploy the National Guard out of state only for certain purposes, such as responding to a natural disaster or another state’s emergency request.

Morrisey’s office has argued the deployment was authorized under federal law.

D.C. National Guard members clean up the park around Fort Stevens Recreation Center, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, in Washington. News of the cleanup sparked a community debate over the presence of the Guard. (AP Photo/Gary Fields)

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Richard Lindsay in Charleston heard initial arguments in the case Oct. 24. The civic group claimed it was harmed by the deployment by being forced to refocus its resources away from government accountability and transparency.

The state attorney general’s office sought to reject the case, saying the group has not been harmed and lacked standing to challenge Morrisey’s decision. Lindsay rescheduled the hearing and ordered the state to focus on whether what Morrisey did was lawful.

The West Virginia National Guard has said its deployment could last until the end of November.

While Trump issued an executive order in August declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital, the U.S. Justice Department says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.

Within a month, more than 2,300 Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling under the Army secretary’s command. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist them.

Separately, a federal judge heard arguments Oct. 24 on District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb ’s request for an order that would remove National Guard members from Washington streets. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, did not rule from the bench.

Instead of a standard flight attendant, Minnesota United assistant coach Zarek Valentin was heard over the plane’s intercom system before the team’s flight to Seattle on Saturday.

And instead of rote instructions that all passengers have heard a million times, Valentin shared news: Dayne St. Clair has won the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.

The Loons ‘keeper knew something was afoot before the announcement, given team staff members were pointing cameras toward his seat in the rear of the plane.

Michael Boxall and other tammates clamored for a speech. St. Clair went to the front of the plane, grabbed the intercom and said he was thankful and it wouldn’t be possible without all the teammates who played in front of him this season.

“I’m happy about it,” St. Clair told local reporters. “But I feel like a little bit is I probably haven’t fully processed it, because my mindset right now is so focused on being able to get a result” in Game 2 of the first round MLS Cup Playoff series against the Sounders on Monday night.

St. Clair won the award over two other finalists: NYCFC’s Matt Freese and Vancouver’s Yohei Takaoka. St. Clair led MLS with a 79.7 save percentage, was second at 1.0 goals per 90 minutes and tied for fourth with 10 clean sheets.

St. Clair doesn’t have a favorite moment from his award-winning season and says that’s a good thing.

“I think I’ve been able to really be the most consistent that I have been,” said St. Clair, who is in his seventh seasons as a pro. “All those moments kind of combined in the consistency and the work.”

St. Clair is the second Loons goalkeeper to win the award after Vito Mannone in 2019. That was St. Clair’s rookie season that season and he spent part of the year on loan with Forward Madison in USL, but he recalled how tight that team was defensively, with the likes of Boxall, Ike Opara and Ozzie Alonso ahead of Mannone.

St Clair remembers Mannone’s penalty kick save against FC Dallas that season as well as his consistency.

“No real, quote, unquote, big mistakes,” St. Clair said. “Sometimes those are going to happen, but at the same time, is someone back there that you can really rely on to make the save more than not and make the hard things look easy.”

St. Clair, who is Canada’s top goalkeeper going into the 2026 World Cup, will be an MLS free agent at the end 2025.

“There’s no update for me,” St. Clair said. “I’m kind of focused on this playoff stretch right now and doing the best I can for the team. I think I’ll take care of that and see where all the cards lie and deal with that after” the playoffs.

By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, has hearings on Dec. 8-9 in the human smuggling case against him in Tennessee.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw will hear evidence on motions from the defense asking him to dismiss the charges and throw out some of the evidence. The hearing was originally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. A brief entry from the judge in the electronic docket does not explain the reason for the change after a nonpublic status conference between the judge and the attorneys on Friday. However, the two sides have been fighting over what documents and testimony the government will be required to provide to Abrego Garcia as he tries to prove the charges against him were motivated by a desire to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.

Here’s what to know about the latest developments in the case:

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who has lived in Maryland for years. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager to join his brother, who had become a U.S. citizen. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country, where he faces danger from a gang that targeted his family.

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While he was allowed to live and work in the U.S. under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision, he was not given residency status. Earlier this year, he was mistakenly deported and held in a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison despite having no criminal record.

Facing mounting public pressure and a court order, Trump’s Republican administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, but only after issuing an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and asked Crenshaw to dismiss them.

What are the charges?

Abrego Garcia is charged with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling, with prosecutors claiming he accepted money to transport within the United States people who were in the country illegally.

The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. However, Abrego Garcia was eventually allowed to continue driving with only a warning.

A Department of Homeland Security agent testified at an earlier hearing that he did not begin investigating the traffic stop until after the U.S. Supreme Court said in April that the Trump administration must work to bring back Abrego Garcia.

What is the motion to dismiss about?

Abrego Garcia has asked Crenshaw to dismiss the smuggling charges on the grounds of “selective or vindictive prosecution.”

In a recent ruling, Crenshaw found “some evidence that the prosecution against him may be vindictive” and said many statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern.” Crenshaw specifically cited a statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, on a Fox News Channel program, that seemed to suggest the Justice Department charged Abrego Garcia because he won his wrongful-deportation case.

The two sides have been sparring over whether senior Justice Department officials, including Blanche, can be required to testify in the case.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire has argued in court filings that it doesn’t matter what members of the Trump administration have said about Abrego Garcia.

“The relevant prosecutorial decision-maker, the Acting U.S. Attorney, has explained on the record that this prosecution was not brought for vindictive or discriminatory reasons,” McGuire writes in a court filing. He adds that any public statements by senior Trump administration officials about Abrego Garcia reflect public safety concerns that are “plainly consistent with a legitimate motivation to prosecute him.”

What is the main motion to suppress evidence about?

Another motion from Abrego Garcia asks the judge to suppress evidence in the case. It claims the 2022 traffic stop that ultimately led to the smuggling charges was illegal, so evidence from that stop should not be used at trial.

In support, court filings say the state trooper who pulled him over stated that the speed limit was 65 mph (105 kph) when it was actually 70 mph (113 kph). The trooper accused him of driving at 75 mph (120 kph), but there is no record that the trooper used a radar gun or pacing to gauge the speed. Abrego Garcia said he was driving at 70 mph, correctly noting the speed limit.

Attorneys for the government argue that the trooper made an honest mistake. The speed limit decreases to 65 mph about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) farther down the interstate. The attorneys also note that Abrego Garcia was driving in the left lane “consistent with an individual traveling in excess of the posted speed limit.” And the trooper, they said, had “no reason or motivation to manufacture a traffic violation against him.”

Is he being deported?

Abrego Garcia currently can’t be deported to El Salvador thanks to the 2019 settlement that found he had a “well founded fear” of danger there. However, the Trump administration has said he cannot stay in the U.S. Over the past couple of months government officials have said they would deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and, most recently, Liberia.

The administration’s deportation agreements with so-called third countries have been contested in court by advocacy groups, which have noted that some immigrants are being sent to countries with long histories of human rights violations. But in June, a divided Supreme Court allowed the swift removal of immigrants to countries other than their homelands and with minimal notice.

Abrego Garcia sued the Trump administration in a Maryland court over his earlier deportation, and the judge in that case has temporarily barred his removal. If the judge decides to lift that order, government attorneys have said they are ready to deport him right away.

Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia has applied for asylum in the U.S. in immigration court.

Tuesday marks the final day of voting in a contentious election season. City Limits spoke to residents about what they want the city’s next mayor to prioritize when taking office on Jan. 1. Submit yours, and we’ll share these with whoever takes office at City Hall next year.

Some of the New Yorkers City Limits has spoken to so far say they want the next mayor to lower the cost of rent and housing, provide more resources for youth, improve city shelters and more. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Tuesday marks the final day of voting in a contentious New York City election season. After a crowded Democratic primary in June, voters this week can choose between three leading candidates to be the city’s next mayor: former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (running as an independent), Democratic nominee and State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, and Republican Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.

More than 735,000 residents have already cast their ballots via early voting—a record high for a non-presidential election year, according to the New York Times.

RELATED READING: The Candidates for Mayor On Housing, Zoning and NYCHA

For the last several weeks, City Limits has been talking to New York City residents about what they want the next mayor to prioritize when taking office on Jan. 1. We spoke to renters, NYCHA tenants, people who’ve experienced homelessness and others about their top issues on their minds. We heard an array of answers, among them public safety, resources for seniors and youth, and the high cost of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Want to submit your own? Upload a video here, or send us a written answer here. We may include them in our future reporting. Either way, we’ll share the responses we receive with whichever candidate ends up taking over at City Hall come Jan. 1.

I Want My Next Mayor To…

“I would like to see a rent freeze, for one thing,” said Kurt Hill, a rent stabilized tenant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at a rally outside Gracie Mansion on Sept. 30—a day before rent increases for tenants in the city’s roughly 1 million stabilized apartments were set to take effect.

RELATED READING: Can Eric Adams Really Block a Mamdani Rent Freeze?

The politics of a rent freeze for regulated units, a key Mamdani campaign pledge, has been a hotly debated issue throughout the election. Under outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, the Rent Guidelines Board that sets those annual rates has increased rents for stabilized apartments by 12 percent over the last four years, what Hill called “simply unacceptable.”

Jeremy Santana, a 40-year-old resident in the Williamsbridge neighborhood of the Bronx and a chef at a Chipotle in Manhattan, said he wants to see lower costs for housing and public transportation, and more police on the subways—especially overnight. “You guys should focus on the real crime, not worrying about little tickets and little like, somebody hopped the train—that’s not something they should be focusing on. They should be focusing on protecting the city.”

In general, though, he said he wants the next mayor to do one key thing: deliver what they promised. “A lot of people who have been elected into the mayoral race give you a lot of false dreams, and they tell you they’re going to do all this stuff, and it just never happens,” Santana said.

“Do what you say you’re going to do,” he said. “That’s what I would like. Make a better New York.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Adi@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org. Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post New York City Residents, Finish This Sentence: ‘I Want My Next Mayor To…’ appeared first on City Limits.