National Guard Ordered to Do ICE Paperwork at Immigration Facilities in 20 States

The Trump administration authorized the deployment of National Guard troops to immigration facilities in 20 states beginning early next month, further entwining the military in civil and law enforcement functions. The move undermines long-standing prohibitions on the use of the armed forces in domestic operations, sidestepping the Posse Comitatus Act and accelerating the U.S. transition into a police state, experts said. The National Guard will be deployed in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, among other states, according to a defense official who was not authorized to disclose the information. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged it was now finalizing the parameters of its expanded collaboration with the Pentagon. “We’re engaged with the Department of Defense and we’re figuring out the next steps,” Tanya Roman, an ICE spokesperson told The Intercept. Guard members will assist ICE officials in “alien processing” – administrative work preceding detention — in 20 states while ICE leadership will “direct” troops assigned to the mission, which will begin in early August, according to a memo first revealed on Wednesday by the New York Times. “The National Guard serving as camp administrators for ICE’s infamous detention centers is a dangerous and shameful step for everyone involved,” said Sam Ratner, policy director at Win Without War. The Pentagon told The Intercept that these troops will operate under so-called Title 32 status, meaning they will be under state, rather than federal, control, unlike deployments in Los Angeles and across the southern border. Experts say it hardly lessens the dangers to democracy. “This move raises almost all the same concerns as using active-duty troops, and then some,” Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s liberty and national security program, told The Intercept. “This is yet another attempt to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally prohibits the military from engaging in civilian law enforcement activities.” Related The Military Occupied LA for 40 Days and All They Did Was Detain One Guy In his first six months in office, President Donald Trump has overseen the deployment of nearly 20,000 federal troops on American soil, including personnel from the National Guard, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines, according to the Pentagon’s public statements. The true number may be markedly higher, as U.S. Northern Command receives only snapshots of data about the number of troops deployed at any given time from various task forces and military service branches, according to spokesperson Becky Farmer.  U.S. federal forces have already been operating in at least five states — Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas — all in service of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Experts say that the increasing use of military forces in the interior of the United States represents an extraordinary violation of Posse Comitatus, a bedrock 19th-century law seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America. The administration’s legal justification for its latest deployment hinges on the exploitation of a provision in the law, Goitein said. “This time, Trump is relying on a legal loophole embedded within Title 32 known as 502(f) that allows National Guard forces to perform law enforcement functions when they’re not in federal status, even if they’re performing a federal mission. But the way Trump is using 502(f) is unprecedented and goes far beyond Congress’s intent in passing the law,” she told The Intercept. “Most National Guard forces are not trained as law enforcement officers, they’re trained as soldiers.” Last week, the Pentagon announced plans to replace Marine Corps and Naval Reserve units already assisting ICE under Title 10 status — federal control — with National Guard troops under Title 32 status, allowing members to have a more direct role in anti-immigrant operations. “Through active planning and collaboration with our ICE partners, the Department determined that specific operational needs may require direct interaction with individuals in ICE custody,” according to chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. Goitein said no matter what authority they were operating under, the use of Guard members is dangerous. “Most National Guard forces are not trained as law enforcement officers, they’re trained as soldiers,” she said. “That creates real risks, for both the civilians with whom Guard members will interact and the Guard members themselves.” “The Department of Homeland Security is engaged with the Department of Defense and working out final details on a partnership that will enable the National Guard to supplement a wide range of immigration enforcement activity in the U.S. interior,” Roman, the ICE spokesperson, said. More than 10,000 troops are deploying or have deployed to the southern border, according to Northern Command. Under the direction of NORTHCOM, military personnel have deployed under the moniker Joint Task Force-Southern Border, or JTF-SB, since March, bolstering approximately 2,500 service members who were already supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s border security mission. One-third of the U.S. border is now completely militarized due to the creation of four new national defense areas, or NDAs: sprawling extensions of U.S. military bases patrolled by troops who can detain immigrants until they can be handed over to Border Patrol agents. Around 5,500 troops — Marines and California National Guard members — have also been deployed to Los Angeles since early June, according to Farmer. The forces were sent to LA over the objections of local officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Dispatched by Trump to quell protests against ICE immigration raids and to “protect the safety and security of federal functions, personnel, and property,” they were also drafted into support of ICE raids. This included a punitive raid on MacArthur Park, an LA open space that rousted a summer day camp for children, as well as military-style assaults on state-licensed marijuana nurseries that left one man working on the farms, Jaime Alanís Garcia, dead. The directive signed by Trump calling up the California National Guard cited “10 U.S.C. 12406,” a provision within Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services that allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” After The Intercept began reporting that the troops had done almost nothing in LA beyond one temporary detention, the Trump administration began withdrawing the forces at an increasing rate. Parnell announced on Wednesday another significant release of California National Guard members, noting that only about 25 troops “remain in Los Angeles to protect federal personnel and property.” The federalization of California National Guard troops hampered firefighting efforts, cutting a key Guard task force to just 40 percent capacity while wildfires flared up across the state, according to Newsom. The governor’s office also noted that Trump had allowed drugs to “flow freely across the border” after the deployment diverted about a third of the 450 Guard members from their work on a state counterdrug task force. Related The Pentagon Won’t Track Troops Deployed on U.S. Soil. So We Will. Earlier this month approximately 200 Marines were mobilized to support ICE’s “interior immigration enforcement mission” in Florida, according to NORTHCOM. The command noted that they were only the “first wave” of ICE assistance. They are still operating under Title 10 authorities, according to Farmer. The Pentagon has continued to insist that it is critical that troops do ICE’s scutwork. “This ongoing support, provided in response to a May 9, 2025 request for assistance from the Department of Homeland Security includes case management, transportation and logistical support, and clerical support for the in- and out-processing of illegal aliens at ICE detention facilities,” Parnell announced last Friday. “By providing these crucial services, DoD military personnel directly enable ICE to dedicate more trained agents to core law enforcement activities, significantly enhancing overall effectiveness.” Goitein noted that other states were at risk of the same blowback experienced by Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard. “Guard forces are often the front line in states’ disaster response efforts,” she told The Intercept. “As we enter into hurricane season, pulling hundreds or thousands of Guard members off their disaster response duties will place communities in real danger and could lead to tragedy.” The post National Guard Ordered to Do ICE Paperwork at Immigration Facilities in 20 States appeared first on The Intercept.