Trump team ‘looked at using US troops to round up migrants’
DONALD Trump’s administration considered mobilising 100,000 National Guard troops to round up millions of unauthorised migrants, according to a draft memo which was leaked yesterday.
The Associated Press obtained the 11-page document calling for an unprecedented militarisation of America’s immigration enforcement operation, which was purported to have been authorised by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired US Marines general.
According to the memo, the troops would be used to find and detain illegal immigrants in 11 states, including California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma.
A source at the Department of Homeland Security admitted it had produced the early draft but said it was not seriously considered and never brought to Mr Kelly for approval.
Last night, White House spokesman Sean Spicer claimed the report was ‘100 per cent not true’ and ‘irresponsible’. He added: ‘There is no effort at all to utilise the National Guard to round up unauthorised immigrants.’ Mr Spicer would not say that such a controversial idea had never been considered but insisted that the draft memo was ‘not a White House document’.
National Guardsmen have been used previously to help in immigration-related operations along the Mexico border, but never so broadly or so far north.
The memo is dated January 25, the same day Mr Trump issued an executive order to speed up the deportation of undocumented immigrants.
He has now vowed to announce a second order blocking travel from seven Muslim-majority countries after his first was overturned by the courts, which he insists is needed to keep the US safe from terrorism.
Mr Trump faced further embarrassment yesterday after a respected former US Navy Seal Special Forces commando turned down his offer of the post of National Security Adviser. Mr Trump approached Robert Harward after he was forced to oust Michael Flynn from the job after just 24 days over his contacts with Russia. However, Mr Harward, a retired vice-admiral, said he preferred to spend time with his family.