National Guard to fingerprint, DNA swab immigrant detainees to help ICE
Florida National Guard personnel will replace 200 Marines deployed in July for "administrative, clerical and logistics" duties at ICE facilities.
- 1,700 National Guard troops will assist ICE with processing detainees in over a dozen states.
- Guard duties include DNA swabbing, fingerprinting, and transporting individuals.
WASHINGTON − National Guard troops deploying to help immigration enforcement agents in more than a dozen red states will DNA swab, fingerprint and transport detainees as part of a plan greenlit by some Republican governors for 1,700 troops to take over some at ICE offices.
The Pentagon announced on July 25 that 1,700 National Guard personnel – 1,200 already deployed plus 500 additional troops – will work on "case management, transportation and logistical support, and clerical support for the in- and out-processing" of ICE arrests.
The duties of some will also include taking DNA swabs, photographs and fingerprints of people held at ICE facilities, according to a defense official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Guard troops have already started to arrive at ICE offices.
In Florida, 25 of the 200 National Guard personnel that will "backfill" nine ICE offices across the state arrived on Aug. 5, according to William Manley, a spokesperson for the Florida National Guard.
"We anticipate that our Guardsmen will be performing administrative/clerical tasks, fingerprinting, DNA swabbing, photography and transportation support," Manley said.
The Florida National Guard personnel will replace 200 Marines deployed in early July to take on "administrative, clerical and logistics" duties at the state's ICE facilities, according to a statement from U.S. Northern Command.
National Guard troops could take on similar roles at ICE offices in 20 additional states with Republican governors, including Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, according to Maj. Micah Maxwell, a National Guard Bureau spokesperson.
South Carolina has received a request for 40 troops, and Louisiana for 70 troops, according to spokespeople for those state's National Guard bureaus.
The Trump administration deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to quell protests in Los Angeles over widespread immigration raids. The majority – more than 3,000 – have been recalled.
Troops tapped by red state governors to backfill ICE offices
Unlike those troops, the Guardsmen now tapped to help with ICE arrests will be deployed on the orders of the two dozen states' Republican governors. That means they are not subject to legal prohibitions on federal troops performing law enforcement functions.
Tapping the troops to play an integrated role in processing ICE arrests is still cause for concern, said Joseph Nunn, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program.
"If you're deploying the military domestically to assist with immigration enforcement, you are pulling personnel resources and attention away from the military's core national security responsibilities," Nunn said. That includes the Guard's "traditional" responsibilities, like disaster relief and response, he added.
Integrating troops into internal law enforcement operations farther from the border risks making them a regular "presence in ICE offices ... across the country," he said.
It opens up the possibility of "the military's seemingly permanent presence at the U.S.-Mexico border ... moving into the interior of the country," he said.