(NewsNation) — On Saturday, White House border czar Tom Homan shared the Trump administration’s strategy to position 1,700 National Guard members in 19 states to aid federal immigration officials.
According to Homan, the National Guard will act as a “force multiplier” for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, assisting with tasks such as transportation and intelligence, but not making arrests, as discussed with NewsNation correspondent Libbey Dean.
“ICE is stretched thin. With fewer than 5,000 deportation officers available, it’s challenging to manage over 20 million illegal aliens,” Homan stated. “There are nearly 700,000 individuals with criminal records we need to locate.”
Guard will allow ICE to focus on arrests: Homan
By utilizing the National Guard, Homan believes ICE agents can concentrate on identifying potentially dangerous individuals for possible deportation from the U.S.
The plan to deploy National Guard troops was announced earlier by the Pentagon. The mission is expected to last at least through mid-November.
The deployment will occur in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming, according to a Defense Department spokesperson who spoke to NewsNation.
This National Guard support for ICE differs from the recent troop deployment to Washington, D.C., prompted by the Trump administration’s concerns about the conditions and crime in the nation’s capital.
“This is a separate mission from the D.C. support mission. Additional questions on personnel support to ICE should be directed to the individual states supporting the mission,” the Pentagon spokesperson said.
Governors in multiple Republican-led states have supported President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in D.C.
