The White House distanced itself Friday from a Department of Homeland Security draft proposal to use the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants, but lawmakers said the document offers insight into the Trump administration’s internal efforts to enact its crackdown on illegal immigration.
Administration officials said the proposal, which called for mobilizing up to 100,000 troops in 11 states, was rejected, and would not be part of plans to carry out President Trump’s aggressive immigration policy.
If implemented, the National Guard idea, contained in an 11-page memo obtained by The Associated Press, could have led to enforcement action against millions of immigrants living nowhere near the Mexican border. Four states that border on Mexico were included in the proposal — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — but it also encompassed seven states contiguous to those four — Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
Despite the AP’s public release of the document, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said there was ‘‘no effort at all to utilize the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants.’’ A DHS official described the document as a very early draft that was not seriously considered and never brought to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly for approval.
But DHS staffers said Thursday that they had been told by colleagues in two DHS departments that the proposal was being considered as recently as Feb. 10. DHS spokeswoman Gillian Christensen declined to say who wrote the memo, how long it had been under consideration, or when it had been rejected.
The pushback from administration officials did little to quell outrage over the draft plan. Three Republican governors spoke out against the proposal, and numerous Democratic lawmakers denounced it as an overly aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.
‘‘Regardless of the White House’s response, this document is an absolutely accurate description of the disturbing mindset that pervades the Trump administration when it comes to our nation’s immigrants,’’ said Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said he would have ‘‘concerns about the utilization of National Guard resources for immigration enforcement,’’ believing such a program ‘‘would be too much of a strain on our National Guard personnel.’’
Utah Governor Gary Herbert would have serious concerns about the constitutional implications and financial impact of activating the Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants, his office said in a statement.
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval questioned the legality of the plan described in the draft memo and said it would be an inappropriate use of Guard resources.
Governors in the 11 states would have had a choice whether to have their guard troops participate, according to the memo, which bears the name of Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general. While National Guard personnel have been used to assist with immigration-related missions on the US-Mexico border before, they have never been used as broadly or as far north.
