Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, left, and Gen. Randy George, the service’s chief of staff, testify Thursday, June 5, 2025, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to examine the Army’s force and budget. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Army officials confirmed Thursday that the service is preparing to provide 20,000 National Guard troops to crack down on immigration, raising concerns among lawmakers about the “unprecedented” nature of the deployment.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Randy George, the service chief of staff, said they did not yet know what role National Guard members would play in the immigration enforcement effort but said troop involvement would be legal and in line with training.
“I think the missions would be aligned with what our soldiers are trained to do,” George said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Department of Homeland Security asked the Defense Department for the troops last month to help President Donald Trump’s administration arrest and deport masses of undocumented immigrants.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the committee, described the request as “unprecedented” in mission and scope, marking the first time National Guard members are used to enforce an immigration crackdown within the United States.
Reed said he feared scenes of soldiers driving around in military vehicles, pulling people out of houses, putting detainees in the backs of trucks and driving them away.
“I don’t think that’s the image the Army has strove for 250 years to create,” he said.
Driscoll said he had no details on what National Guard troops would be doing, from which states they would come or what the cost of their involvement would be. He committed, however, not to deploy the National Guard “for any unlawful use.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., citing an internal memo, said Homeland Security is asking up to 3,500 National Guard members to support investigative units for high-priority fugitive cases, surveillance and canvassing missions, data analysis and rural interdiction.
She noted the memo states the Defense Department is not going to be reimbursed for the operations.
“The Department of Homeland Security, if they’re going to engage in these operations, then they ought to be footing the bill, not asking the Department of Defense and the Army or anybody else in the National Guard to do that,” Shaheen said.
Democrats also voiced concerns that the deployment of large numbers of Guard members would needlessly pull them away from their jobs and families and divert them from their traditional roles in disaster relief as hurricane season gets underway.
Thousands of Guard members are already deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they have largely assisted with tasks such as security and logistics since 2018.
George assured senators that the mobilization of additional troops for the administration’s immigration crackdown would not negatively impact disaster response.
“We’re prepared to respond to emergencies, we’ve done that routinely,” he said.
Not all lawmakers are opposed to the National Guard’s growing participation in immigration enforcement.
Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa who served in that state’s Army National Guard, said soldiers are eager for opportunities to put their training to use and the National Guard should take advantage of it.
“I say, the more that we can use our soldiers in jobs that are appropriate for our soldiers, I say go for it,” she said. “We can always further their skills by having those types of mobilizations.”
