The White House disputed an Associated Press report Friday that President Donald Trump is considering sending the National Guard to round up illegal immigrants.
“This is not true,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted, within minutes of the AP report.
The AP obtained an 11-page memo drafted by the Department of Homeland Security outlining the move, which would involve sending the troops to southern states to round up and deport illegal immigrants. Calling the plan an “unprecedented militarization” of immigration enforcement, the AP reports it would encompass the four states on the border with Mexico, as well as seven states contiguous to those four. The document was dated Jan. 25.
The White House has not denied the document is real, but maintains Trump never considered implementing such a plan. “It is irresponsible to be saying this,” Spicer told the press corps, calling the report “100% not true.”
“There is no effort at all to utilize the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants,” he added, claiming DHS has confirmed as well the report is 100 percent “false.”
The AP said it reached out to both The White House and DHS prior to publishing, but that neither responded to their requests for comment.
Spicer disputed this point as well: “I wish you guys had asked before you tweeted,” he said.
A spokesman for the National Guard told the Washington Examiner the first he heard of the plan was from media reports.
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