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Thousands Ask Governors to Keep National Guard Out of Trump’s Deportation Force

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Campaign gathers tens of thousands of signatures asking Governors in six states to not comply with Trump immigration crackdown, keep National Guard out of Trump’s deportation force

Last month, the Associated Press reported that the Trump Administration was considering a plan that would have allowed Governors to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to arrest, detain, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants along the United States’ southern border.

According to a draft memo that The Associated Press obtained in mid-February, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, headed by John Kelly, directed Governors in the states of Oregon, Nevada, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Louisiana to consider deputizing their states’ National Guard members as immigration officers.

From the “Implementing the President’s Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvement Policies” draft memo:

I am directing the Commissioner of CBP and the Director of ICE to immediately engage with the Governors of the States adjacent to the land border with Mexico and those States adjoining such border states for the purpose of entering into agreements under section 287(g) of the INA to authorize qualified members of the State National Guard … to perform functions of an immigration officer…

The 287(g) agreement is an immigration enforcement initiative that allows local law enforcement to be deputized as federal immigration agents. The agreement is extremely controversial, as it undermines relationships between local law enforcement and immigration communities while redirecting resources from local law enforcement departments for functions that ought to be conducted by the federal government.

Trump’s White House ultimately denied the report from the Associated Press, and released another signed executive order that acted as the “owner’s manual” for Trump’s mass -deportation agenda.

However, that did not stop local advocates from launching online petitions demanding that their Governors, who have the final approval on National Guard deployments, resist Donald Trump’s unprecedented and un-American attempt to deport hard-working immigrants from across the country.

In a partnership between America’s Voice, MoveOn.org, and local organizations like Generation Justice and Aliento, an online petition effort seeking to dissuade Governors in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah from mobilizing their National Guards gathered over 53,000 petition signatures combined!

Below are photos and video from the petitions deliveries that took place across the country:

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

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Sharon Mendoza

Immigration is an extremely important topic not only because I am an immigrant, but because there are so many people who are immigrants themselves & are afraid to speak up, especially now that Trump is president.

There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, many who go to school, work, and pay taxes. Most of us consider the U.S. our home, more than our country because we’ve lived here for years. It’s depressing how the president can’t think of a better way to fix the issue, deporting people who have never committed a serious crime is not the way to go, neither is building a pointless wall.

New Mexico

Generation Justice delivering the petition demanding that Governor Martinez keep the NM National Guard out of Donald Trump’s Deportation Force, with 4,500 signatures. #NMLeg

Posted by Generation Justice on Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Utah