WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security has requested more than 20,000 National Guard members to help with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.
The request to the Defense Department came after President Donald Trump asked the Department of Homeland Security last week to increase its ranks by pulling in 20,000 officers from state or federal agencies.
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Lawyers at the Pentagon were reviewing the request with “interior immigration enforcement,” according to a Defense Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. It was unclear what role state National Guard members would play and whether they would be involved in rounding up people for deportation, the official said.
It was not immediately clear if the states would also have to approve the plan.
National Guard troops have generally played a supporting role to domestic authorities in enforcing immigration issues at the border, including logistics, security and other assistance. But the Defense Department official said that if the request were approved, it would be the first time National Guard troops were used to help enforce an immigration crackdown in the United States.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment
The moves to bolster immigration enforcement capacity are part of a wider push to increase deportations and arrests to meet Trump’s promises of “mass deportations,” which the administration has not met thus far. Immigration arrests require extensive resources, including ample time for surveillance.
To help with the effort, the Trump administration has pulled in agents and officers from other federal entities, including from the Justice Department. Just this week, the agency moved to enlist about 2,000 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration to help with arrests.
In the first few months of the administration, agents from the ATF and the DEA, among others, were mostly tasked with helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with securing arrest scenes and adding more people to teams that target immigrants in the country illegally.
The Trump administration has also turned to local law enforcement for help. In recent months, they have signed agreements with local police officers who would allow them to make immigration arrests in cooperation with ICE. Late last month, law enforcement officials in Florida helped ICE in an operation that led to the arrest of more than 1,000 immigrants.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.