WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is reviewing a Department of Homeland Security request to deploy more than 20,000 additional National Guard troops to aid the Trump administration’s widening crackdown on illegal immigration around the United States, according to officials and documents.
More: National Guard, Marine deployment in Los Angeles costs $134 million: Pentagon
Homeland Security officials want the troops to help track fugitives, quell riots at detention centers and search for unaccompanied children in remote or hostile terrain.
Meanwhile, Pentagon and Customs and Border Patrol officials have inspected military bases in recent months from New Jersey to California as potential sites to detain an expected influx of migrants.
Keeping 20,000 National Guardsmen on duty for one year would cost $3.6 billion, according to a U.S. official briefed on the potential deployment. However, it’s unclear how many Guardsmen are available to fill the request, according to a Defense official.
More: As ICE touts arrests, chaotic scenes emerge amid immigration crackdown
Defending or policing?
The moves would shift the military from its mission of defending the nation against foreign enemies toward policing its streets, according to critics such as Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
Trump has upped the ante in recent days, ordering the 4,000 California National Guardsmen to Los Angeles and deploying 700 active-duty Marines to the city over the objection of Gov. Gavin Newsom. That deployment is costing $134 million.
“Using the U.S. military to support immigration enforcement within our own borders would threaten the longstanding American principle of separating law enforcement from military power,” Reed said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Such a move would erode civil liberties and set a dangerous precedent for the militarization of American communities. I’ve voted for billions in smart and focused immigration enforcement, but it is a duty for law enforcement, not the armed forces.”
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On June 10, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated the National Guard would soon take on a larger role in domestic security. He told a House committee that the United States was entering a new “phase” in which the National Guard would “become a critical component of how we secure that homeland.”
“The National Guard is a huge component of how we see the future,” he said.
Immigrant detention on military bases under consideration
At Fort Bliss in Texas, the Army has a facility holding about 100 immigrants in a detention facility. A larger facility is being built there to house as many as 5,000 people, according to a U.S. official briefed on the operation but not authorized to speak publicly.
Other bases under consideration for immigrant detention include Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Travis Air Force Base and Camp Parks in California, Fort Walker in Virginia and Camp Atterbury in Indiana.
Officials visited those bases months ago, but it’s unclear if any have been selected to receive detainees, the Defense official said.
The location of some of the bases near major metropolitan areas like New York City and San Francisco indicates that immigration sweeps like the one in Los Angeles could take place there, too, the official said.
Separately, the request from Homeland Security calls for up to 21,000 National Guard troops whose “support will encompass both non-law enforcement support functions and sworn law enforcement activities.”
Military could aid in ‘interior immigration enforcement operations’
There are thousands of National Guard and active-duty troops at the southern border. However, a memo reviewed by USA TODAY acknowledges that it is the first formal request by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deploy national staff “in support of interior immigration enforcement operations.”
ICE is carrying out a directive from Trump to find immigrants living in the United States without legal status. Protests have sprung up against the sweeps the agency is carrying out in various neighborhoods.
Active-duty troops are generally prohibited from domestic policing under the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th-century law that “embodies an American tradition that sees military interference in civilian affairs as a threat to both democracy and personal liberty,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
National Guard troops, however, are rarely subject to the law, and, under the direction of a state’s governor, can participate in law enforcement activities. A governor of a state sympathetic to the request from Homeland Security could provide the troops for the request from Homeland Security, according to the U.S. official who is familiar with the request but not authorized to speak publicly about it.
The request states that the National Guard troops would be funded under Title 32, the law that leaves the Guardsmen under the control of their state’s governor but uses federal taxpayer dollars to fund their activities.
Fugitives, ‘night operations and rural interdiction’
The request seeks troops to aid immigration enforcement in five areas, including “Attempt to Locate” – Fugitives. Homeland Security is seeking as many as 3,500 Guardsmen for investigative units, surveillance and “Night operations and rural interdiction.”
The largest ask for troops falls in the category of “Transportation Support,” with as many as 10,000 troops needed. These personnel would help transport detainees and “unaccompanied alien children.” The request also seeks buses, vans and aircraft.
As many 2,500 troops fall under the request for help in “Detention Support.” These Guardsmen would support “overwhelmed detention facilities.” Among their expected duties: “riot control.”
Other troops are being sought for search and rescue, medical units and public affairs to manage “public information during high-visibility operations.”
Public perception of and confidence in military could shift
The deployment of thousands of additional National Guard troops in immigration enforcement could affect the public’s perception of the military, said Lindsay Cohn, a political scientist and expert on the domestic use of the military. Cohn is also an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, but spoke about this issue in a personal capacity and not as a representative of the college or federal government.
Homeland Security can justify the request by arguing it lacks the manpower to conduct the sweeps, Cohn said. But raids on schools and businesses are unpopular with the American public. Also, how troops conduct themselves matters a great deal for public perception and confidence, she said.
If they behave with restraint, Cohn said, they may be able to maintain an appearance of not “taking sides.” However, given that many in law enforcement personnel dress in military-like uniforms, the public may not differentiate between troops and law enforcement.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump wants 20,000 National Guardsmen to hunt, transport immigrants
