The military said it has received a request from the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland security officials have requested 20,000 personnel to help with their large-scale deportation operation, officials confirmed on May 16.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked for 20,000 National Guardsmen “to help carry out the President’s mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“The Department of Homeland Security will use every tool and resource available to get criminal illegal aliens including gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and other violent criminals out of our country. The safety of American citizens comes first,” she added.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon told The Epoch Times in an email that the military has received a request from DHS. The spokesperson declined to provide any additional information.
President Donald Trump has called for carrying out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, referencing how the government’s peak of removals was more than 1 million in fiscal year 1954.
In an order in May, he said that within 60 days, the DHS secretary “shall supplement existing enforcement and removal operations by deputizing and contracting with State and local law enforcement officers, former Federal officers, officers and personnel within other Federal agencies, and other individuals to increase the enforcement and removal operations force of the Department of Homeland Security by no less than 20,000 officers in order to conduct an intensive campaign to remove illegal aliens who have failed to depart voluntarily.”
Guard personnel are typically directed to tasks by states, but presidents have the power to federalize them or otherwise deploy them, as Trump did to Washington in 2020 during the protests and riots there.
Some officials expressed support for the Trump administration’s new action.
“DHS requests 20,000 National Guard troops to help with mass deportations. Texas is in. Let’s get this done,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, wrote on the social media platform X.
DHS requests 20,000 National Guard troops to help with mass deportations.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 16, 2025
Texas is in.
Let’s get this done. https://t.co/MSlTVgJGOS
Abbott has utilized Guard personnel to arrest and help deport illegal immigrants.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond urged the state’s governor, Kevin Stitt, to send troops from Oklahoma to the border in light of the request.
