Trump Administration Is Deploying Soldiers to Immigration Jails in 20 States

The Trump administration is deploying National Guard troops to immigration jails in 20 states with Republican governors, including Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Texas and Louisiana, according to The New York Times.

On July 30, the Times reported that ICE officials had sent a memo to field offices stating that troops will help with “alien processing,” which the Times defined as paperwork related to a person’s detention.

“This is the first time this has ever happened that the National Guard has been used to support immigration enforcement and deportation operations within the interior of the country,” Joseph Nunn, who is counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, told Truthout.

The administration has already stationed troops along the Southwest border and, in June, sent soldiers to quell protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, a likely violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

The Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 statute, bars federal armed forces from participating in civilian law enforcement activities unless authorized by law. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly encouraged Trump to send the military to Los Angeles. Miller crafted many of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.

“Stephen has been clear in all the meetings: More military, faster,” a Trump adviser told Axios.

In an apparently unprecedented move, the Department of Defense (DOD) has deployed personnel from the Marine Corps and Naval Reserve to assist with “case management, transportation and logistical support, and clerical support for the in- and out-processing” of immigrants at ICE jails, according to a July 25 statement on DOD’s website. The Department said that National Guard troops will take over these duties and will also perform “specific operational needs [that] may require direct interaction with individuals in ICE custody.”

Nunn says deploying troops to work in immigration jails is not a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. However, if National Guard soldiers perform law enforcement duties at the direction of federal officers, then he would consider that a violation of the statute. Those duties could include physically restraining or searching a person in custody, or questioning them about their immigration status.

Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director of Detention Watch Network, called the military deployments “another marker of an authoritarian regime,” noting that the Trump administration has also announced plans to detain immigrants on military bases. In January, Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Defense and DHS to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Guantánamo Bay to “full capacity to provide additional detention space” for immigrants.

“ICE’s partnership with the Department of Defense continues to deepen, making the agency a key collaborator in the massive expansion of the immigration detention system, which is already operating at a historic high,” Ghandehari said in a statement. “It’s clear Trump and Stephen Miller are driven by a racist compulsion and will stop at nothing to proliferate hateful ideologies, intimidate government agencies, and disregard local elected leaders with the goal of villainizing all immigrants.”