By Tara Copp and Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
Washington (AP) – The Ministry of Homeland Security requested 20,000 troops from the National Guard to help immigration filming across the country, and the Pentagon examines the unusual request, an American official at the Associated Press.
The DHS asked the troops to help execute the “mandate of President Donald Trump of the American people to arrest and expel illegal criminal foreigners,” said spokesperson for the Tricia McLaughlin department. She said that the DHS will use “all the tools and resources available” to do so because “the security of American citizens comes first”.
Unlike troops deployed on the southern border, these national guard units would come from states and would be used to help expulsion operations inside the country.
The way the troops are used can depend on the question of whether they remain under the control of state governors. Under the Comitatus law, troops under federal ordinances cannot be used for national police, but units under the state control can do so.
The addition of 20,000 troops of the National Guard would give a huge boost to the application of immigration. Immigration and customs application, the DHS agency responsible for the application of immigration within the country, has a total staff of around 20,000 people spread over three divisions.
Application and moving operations, which is the division directly responsible for the arrest and elimination of persons who are not allowed to stay in the country, has total staff of around 7,700 people, including just over 6,000 law enforcement agents.
We did not know why the request had been made to the Ministry of Defense and not to the States. The American official spoke under the cover of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.
Trump has made a large-scale repression of illegal immigration, issuing a series of decrees designed to stop what he called “the invasion” of the United States.
The United States already have up to 10,000 soldiers under state and federal orders along the American-Mexican border, including some who are now allowed to hold migrants they meet along a narrow strip of newly militarized land adjacent to the border.
So far, these troops have largely limited to providing air transport, strengthening the wall, surveillance and administrative support to release border agents for arrests or detentions.
Along the newly militarized area, the troops have set up warning signs and accompanied by border agents, but left the detention of migrants crossing the border to other agencies.
In New Mexico, where the new militarized zone was created for the first time, the federal judges of magistrate began to reject the national security accusations against migrants accused of having crossed the border of the United States through the newly designated military zone, finding little evidence that they were aware of the area.
The request of 20,000 soldiers was reported for the first time by the New York Times.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
