The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilise as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorised immigrants in the US, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by AP.
However, shortly after the news began doing the rounds, the Trump administration denied any such move, US media reported.
According to AP, the 11-page draft memo calls for the unprecedented militarisation of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana.
Four states that border Mexico are included in the proposal — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — but it also encompasses seven states bordering these four states — Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Governors of the 11 states would have a choice whether to have their guard troops participate, according to the memo, written by the US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, AP said.
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.
The memo is addressed to the then-acting heads of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection, AP reported. It would serve as guidance to implement the wide-ranging executive order on immigration and border security that President Donald Trump signed on 25 January. Such memos are routinely issued to supplement executive orders.
According to AP, the draft memo, also dated 25 January, says participating troops would be authorised "to perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension and detention of aliens in the United States".
It describes how the troops would be activated under a revived state-federal partnership programme, and states that personnel would be authorised to conduct searches and identify and arrest any unauthorised immigrants.
Requests to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment and a status report on the proposal were not answered.
(This article has been shortened for length.)
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