Senate

Schumer: Reports of National Guard deportation plan ‘despicable’

by Jordain Carney - 02/17/17 11:18 AM ET

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted a report that the Trump administration is considering using the National Guard to round up undocumented immigrants for deportation, a claim that the White House has denied.

“That’s despicable,” Schumer told reporters during a press conference on Scott Pruitt’s nomination to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. “That would be one of the most un-American things that would happen in the last century.”

He added: “I just hope it’s not true.”

{mosads}The Trump administration issued a strongly worded denial on Friday morning after The Associated Press reported that the administration was planning to mobilize National Guard troops.

“There is no effort at all to round up, to utilize the National Guard to round up illegal immigrants,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said of the report, according to pool reports.

The AP, citing a draft memo, said that the administration could use up to 100,000 troops.

The AP report comes as a string of high-profile immigration raids have sparked backlash from outside groups and Democrats.

Tags Chuck Schumer