US Homeland Security memo: Deploy 100,000 National Guard troops to round up immigrants
By
Eric London
18 February 2017
The Associated Press on Friday published a memo by the Trump administration’s Homeland Security secretary, retired Gen. John Kelly, proposing the deployment of 100,000 National Guard troops to carry out the president’s January 25 executive order mandating an escalation of the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.
The front page of the 11-page memo reads “From: John Kelly.” It recommends that the governors of 11 states in the South and along the Pacific Coast be instructed to mobilize their state National Guards for the purpose of “perform[ing] the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension, and detention of aliens in the United States.”
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the AP report was “irresponsible” and “100 percent not true.” But only hours later, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told AP anonymously that the document existed and had been drawn up by the DHS.
Spicer then claimed that it was “not a White House document,” and DHS sources said the memo was not presented to President Trump. Spicer added that there was presently “no effort at all to utilize the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants.”
However, Spicer did not deny that the memo was discussed within the Trump administration as a possible course of action. Nor did he state that its proposals would not be considered in the future.
This date of the Kelly memo is January 25, and its first sentence declares its purpose to be the implementation of a January 20 executive order. Since no immigration executive order was issued on January 20, inauguration day, it…