Governors in the 11 states would have a choice regarding whether to have their guard troops participate, according to the memo, written by the US homeland security secretary, John Kelly, a retired four-star marine general.
The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, told press on board the Marine One helicopter, on which Trump was flying to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland en route to South Carolina: “That is 100% not true. It is false. It is irresponsible to be saying this.”
Using the present tense, he added: “There is no effort at all to round up, to utilize the national guard to round up illegal immigrants.”
The Department for Homeland Security echoed this language. “The Department is not considering mobilizing the national guard,” said DHS acting press secretary Gillian Christensen in an email to the Guardian.
But Spicer would not categorically state that such a round-up was never a subject of discussion at some level in the Trump administration .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration . “I don’t know what could potentially be out there, but I know that there is no effort to do what is potentially suggested,” he said.
Staffers in the Department of Homeland Security said the proposal had been discussed as recently as last Friday, the AP reported.
Spicer added: “It is not a White House document.” The AP has made clear that the document was written by Kelly and so would originate from the Department of Homeland Security, not the White House.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.