Nearly 1,700 National Guard troops are expected to deploy across 19 states for the next few months as part of President Donald Trump’s nationwide deportation and crime fighting efforts.
Pentagon planning documents show National Guard troops will be mobilized in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming, Defense Department officials told FOX News.
National Guard troops will be activated in August, with operations continuing through November. The largest number of National Guard troops will head to Texas, officials said, and their duties will include administrative and logistical tasks for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) such as case management, transportation, data collection, fingerprinting, DNA swabbing, and photographing individuals in custody.
On Friday, Trump praised the National Guard already deployed in Washington, D.C., for doing “an incredible job working with the police” to tackle crime in the city.
“I really am honored that the National Guard has done such an incredible job working with the police, and we haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do,” he said. “After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also.”
Earlier this month, Trump announced National Guard troops would be mobilized in the Washington, D.C., and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department would be put under direct federal control.
“This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said at the time. “We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, you know what that is, and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.”
“In addition, I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” he added.
