The Department of Homeland Security has requested roughly 20,000 National Guard troops to assist with the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, two U.S. officials told CBS News Thursday.
The Defense Department is still reviewing the request, and National Guard troops could be pulled from different states to help DHS.
The officials said the troops are being requested to assist law enforcement authorities with logistics and operations related to immigration actions in the interior of the U.S., which would represent the latest expansion of the Trump administration’s unprecedented use of the military to support its large-scale immigration enforcement campaign.
There are already about 8,600 federal troops at the border. The U.S. military has recently created two National Defense Areas, narrow ribbons of land stretching around 230 miles along the border in New Mexico and Texas, which are being treated as extensions of military bases.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited in April and said “any illegal attempting to enter this zone is entering a military base, a federally protected area.” He added that migrants crossing this zone would be detained by both Customs and Border Protection and the Defense Department.
The Navy has also been ramping up support at the border. On Wednesday, the acting chief of naval operations, Adm. James Kilby, told Congress the Navy is providing intelligence flights using P-8 aircraft, two Navy destroyers, and a littoral combat ship as part of the crackdown.
Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, confirmed the department’s request for 20,000 National Guard members.
“The Department of Homeland Security will use every tool and resource available to get criminal illegal aliens including gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and other violent criminals out of our country,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
