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The Trump administration<\/span> authorized the deployment of National Guard troops to immigration facilities in 20 states beginning early next month, further entwining the military in civil and law enforcement functions.<\/p>\n The move undermines long-standing prohibitions on the use of the armed forces in domestic operations, sidestepping the Posse Comitatus Act and accelerating the U.S. transition into a police state, experts said.<\/p>\n The National Guard will be deployed in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, among other states, according to a defense official who was not authorized to disclose the information.<\/p>\n Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged it was now finalizing the parameters of its expanded collaboration with the Pentagon. \u201cWe\u2019re engaged with the Department of Defense and we\u2019re figuring out the next steps,\u201d Tanya Roman, an ICE spokesperson told The Intercept.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Guard members will assist ICE officials in \u201calien processing\u201d \u2013 administrative work preceding detention \u2014 in 20 states while ICE leadership will \u201cdirect\u201d troops assigned to the mission, which will begin in early August, according to a memo first revealed<\/a> on Wednesday by the New York Times.<\/p>\n \u201cThe National Guard serving as camp administrators for ICE\u2019s infamous detention centers is a dangerous and shameful step for everyone involved,\u201d said Sam Ratner, policy director at Win Without War.<\/p>\n The Pentagon told The Intercept that these troops will operate under so-called Title 32 status, meaning they will be under state, rather than federal, control, unlike deployments in Los Angeles<\/a> and across the southern border<\/a>. Experts say it hardly lessens the dangers to democracy.<\/p>\n \u201cThis move raises almost all the same concerns as using active-duty troops, and then some,\u201d Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center\u2019s liberty and national security program, told The Intercept. \u201cThis is yet another attempt to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally prohibits the military from engaging in civilian law enforcement activities.\u201d<\/p>\n In his first\u00a0six months in office, President Donald Trump has overseen the deployment of nearly 20,000 federal troops on American soil, including personnel from the National Guard, the Army, the Navy, the\u00a0Air Force<\/a>, and the Marines, according to the Pentagon\u2019s public statements. The true number may be markedly higher, as U.S. Northern Command receives only snapshots of data about the number of troops deployed at any given time from various task forces and military service branches, according to spokesperson Becky Farmer.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. federal forces have already been operating in at least five states \u2014 Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas \u2014 all in service of the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n Experts say that the increasing use of military forces in the interior of the United States represents an extraordinary violation of Posse Comitatus, a bedrock 19th-century law seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America. The administration\u2019s legal justification for its latest deployment hinges on the exploitation of a provision in the law, Goitein said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis time, Trump is relying on a legal loophole embedded within Title 32 known as 502(f) that allows National Guard forces to perform law enforcement functions when they\u2019re not in federal status, even if they\u2019re performing a federal mission. But the way Trump is using 502(f) is unprecedented and goes far beyond Congress\u2019s intent in passing the law,\u201d she told The Intercept.<\/p>\n \u201cMost National Guard forces are not trained as law enforcement officers, they\u2019re trained as soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Last week, the Pentagon announced plans<\/a> to replace Marine Corps and Naval Reserve units already assisting ICE under Title 10 status \u2014 federal control \u2014 with National Guard troops under Title 32 status, allowing members to have a more direct role in anti-immigrant operations. \u201cThrough active planning and collaboration with our ICE partners, the Department determined that specific operational needs may require direct interaction with individuals in ICE custody,\u201d according to chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.<\/p>\n Goitein said no matter what authority they were operating under, the use of Guard members is dangerous. \u201cMost National Guard forces are not trained as law enforcement officers, they\u2019re trained as soldiers,\u201d she said. \u201cThat creates real risks, for both the civilians with whom Guard members will interact and the Guard members themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Homeland Security is engaged with the Department of Defense and working out final details on a partnership that will enable the National Guard to supplement a wide range of immigration enforcement activity in the U.S. interior,\u201d Roman, the ICE spokesperson, said.<\/p>\n More than\u00a010,000<\/span> troops<\/a>\u00a0are deploying or have deployed to the southern border, according to Northern Command. Under the direction of\u00a0NORTHCOM<\/a>, military personnel have deployed under the moniker Joint Task Force-Southern Border, or JTF-SB, since March, bolstering approximately 2,500 service members who were already supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection\u2019s border security mission.<\/p>\n One-third of the U.S. border is now completely militarized due to the creation of four new national defense areas, or NDAs: sprawling extensions of U.S. military bases patrolled by troops who can detain immigrants until they can be handed over to Border Patrol agents.<\/p>\n Around 5,500\u00a0troops \u2014 Marines and California National Guard members \u2014 have also been deployed to Los Angeles since early June, according to Farmer. The forces were sent to LA over the objections of local officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n