Mayor Emanuel & Sen. Durbin Weigh In On National Guard Immigrant Round Up Potential
By aaroncynic in News on Feb 17, 2017 7:10PM
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at a news conference on January 13, 2017. Photo by Aaron Cynic/Chicagoist
“The concept of using the United States National Guard to round up people from the United States...it’s dead on arrival. Because it’s anti-American,” Emanuel can be seen telling reporters in a video from the mayor’s Twitter account. “They need to shred that memo,” reads the tweet.
Regarding this morning's AP report. It's unAmerican. They need to shred that memo. pic.twitter.com/8q76uDVr7r
— ChicagosMayor (@ChicagosMayor) February 17, 2017
According to the AP story, the plan would have called for the mobilization of 100,000 troops to round up millions of undocumented immigrants in the four states that border Mexico as well as the states contiguous to those four. The memo outlining the plan said participating troops would "perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension and detention of aliens in the United States." State governors would’ve been able to choose whether to have guard troops participate.
The White House said the memo was “not a White House document” and vehemently denied any plans to mobilize the Guard to round up immigrants. In another in a long series of convoluted and confusing interactions with the press, Press Secretary Sean Spiecer said "there is no effort to do what is potentially suggested,” and that it was “irresponsible” to report it. He also said he wished someone would’ve “asked before you tweeted,” despite the fact that the AP repeatedly asking for comment and the White House ignoring the requests.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin also weighed in on the plan, telling the Belleville News Democrat that it “would be a frightening exercise of police state tactics.” “This is not a bizarre tweet,” said Durbin. “This is a brazen, heavy-handed assault on innocent people.”