Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that federal law makes clear that there’s no law enforcement role for the U.S. military personnel that President Donald Trump has, or will dispatch, to cities around the country.

“You know, we’ve got a longstanding policy, Posse Comitatus, that does not permit the use of the American military against the American people,” Pence, who was Trump’s No. 2 during his first term, told reporters after an appearance in Boston.

Pence was referring to a nearly 150-year-old federal statute that bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement, except when explicitly authorized by law, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice.

Pence’s remarks at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Dorche

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