The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops to help with immigration arrests across the country. The Pentagon is now reviewing this unusual request, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the troops would help carry out President Donald Trump’s “mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens.” She said the department will “use every tool and resource available” because the “safety of American citizens comes first.”
These National Guard troops would be different from those already at the southern border. They would come from various states and help with deportation efforts inside the country.
How the troops are used may depend on whether they remain under control of state governors. The Posse Comitatus Act says federal troops cannot be used for law enforcement inside the country, but if they stay under state authority, they can assist.
Adding 20,000 National Guard troops would greatly increase the ability to enforce immigration laws. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency in charge of enforcement inside the country, has about 20,000 staff members in total.
The division of ICE that arrests and removes people not allowed to stay in the U.S. — Enforcement and Removal Operations — has about 7,700 staff, with just over 6,000 of them working as law enforcement officers.
It’s not clear why DHS made the request to the Defense Department instead of asking state governments. The U.S. official, who shared this information, asked not to be named because the details have not yet been made public.
Trump has been taking strong actions against illegal immigration, signing several executive orders to stop what he has described as an “invasion” of the United States.
A deportation officer with the Enforcement and Removal Operations in the U.S.Right now, about 10,000 troops are already deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border under both federal and state orders. Some of these troops are now allowed to detain migrants in a newly secured strip of land next to the border.
Up to this point, the troops have mostly been helping with tasks like flying support missions, building parts of the wall, watching the border, and doing office work to allow border agents to focus on arrests and detentions.
In the new secured area along the border, troops have put up warning signs and walked alongside border agents. However, they have not been the ones arresting migrants crossing the border.
In New Mexico, where this new zone was first created, federal judges have started throwing out national security charges against migrants. The judges say there is little proof the migrants knew they were crossing into a military-controlled area.
The New York Times was the first to report the request for 20,000 National Guard troops.