DHS requests 20,000 National Guard troops for immigration crackdown

By lauraharris // 2025-05-22

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DHS has requested over 20,000 National Guard troops from the DoD to support President Donald Trump's ramped-up interior immigration enforcement, a first-of-its-kind move if approved.
Approximately 2,000 federal agents from the ATF, U.S. Marshals Service and DEA have been redirected to assist ICE in arrest operations, enhancing manpower for large-scale deportation efforts.
The administration has broadened cooperation with local law enforcement, allowing officers to assist ICE in detaining suspected undocumented immigrants, with one recent Florida operation resulting in over 1,000 arrests.
Pentagon lawyers are reviewing the legality of the National Guard request, as courts and judges continue to delay or block aspects of the deportation agenda.
Frustrated by legal obstacles, Trump and top allies have criticized what they call "activist judges," accusing them of obstructing a voter-backed mandate. Trump argues mass deportations cannot allow for individual trials due to time and resource constraints.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has formally requested the deployment of over 20,000 National Guard members to support the Trump administration's intensified immigration enforcement operations. In the past few months, the DHS has been reassigning personnel from various federal law enforcement agencies to boost operational capacity. This May, approximately 2,000 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were redirected to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) teams in making arrests. These agents have primarily supported ICE by securing locations during operations and augmenting field teams that pursue undocumented immigrants. The administration has also expanded partnerships with local police departments through agreements allowing officers to detain individuals suspected of immigration violations. One such joint operation in Florida last month led to the arrest of over 1,000 undocumented immigrants. (Related: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem halts grant funding to NGOs caught facilitating illegal immigration.) And now, with the broader and escalating strategy to fulfill President Donald Trump's long-standing promise to remove millions of undocumented immigrants from the U.S., the DHS directed the Department of Defense (DoD) to dramatically increase its immigration enforcement capacity by drawing manpower from both state and federal agencies. A DoD official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that Pentagon lawyers are reviewing the legal and operational implications of the request, especially as it relates to "interior immigration enforcement" – a task that historically has not included the use of National Guard troops. Traditionally, the role of the National Guard in immigration operations has been limited to logistical and security support along the U.S.-Mexico border, including aerial surveillance, vehicle maintenance and administrative duties. If the current request is approved, it would mark the first time Guard troops are mobilized to assist with deportations within the country's interior.

Coordinated legal blockade by "activist judges"

The development comes as immigration courts and federal judges face mounting pressure from both the administration and legal advocates, creating a legal bottleneck for deportation proceedings. Critics from within the Trump administration and its allies have characterized this resistance as a coordinated legal blockade by "activist judges" appointed or still influenced by the Joe Biden administration. In line with this, Trump lashed out at the judiciary in a post on his Truth Social platform in April. "I'm doing what I was elected to do, remove criminals from our country, but the courts don't seem to want me to do that," he posted. "We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years. We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of illegals we are sending out of the country. Such a thing is not a possible thing to do." These comments reflect growing frustration within the administration over the pace and scale of deportations. Vice President JD Vance echoed that sentiment in a recent interview, referring to ongoing court challenges as a "fake legal process" and "ratification of Biden's illegal migrant invasion." InvasionUSA.news has more stories similar to this. Watch this Jan. 29 episode of "Brighteon Broadcast News" as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about Trump's aggressive immigration raids.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

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Coordinated legal blockade by "activist judges"

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