When Donald Trump announced his campaign for president in June 2015, he quickly came under fire for his controversial comments about illegal immigrants. Fast forward to present day, and Trump is now being linked to an immigration policy that is receiving harsh backlash.
Trump denies
On Friday night, the Associated Press reported that the Donald Trump administration were planning to use as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to deport illegal immigrants in 11 different states around the country. The memo obtained by the AP was reportedly drafted by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, and would be seen as yet another controversial act by the White House.
The news comes just days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took close to 700 illegal immigrants into custody, the majority of whom had prior criminal records. As reported by The Hill on February 17, the White House is now denying the AP report.
White House strongly denies report National Guard will be used to round up illegal immigrants https://t.co/n4N0KPMOGL pic.twitter.com/DCa2uPozzZ
— The Hill (@thehill) February 17, 2017
"That is 100 percent not true. It is false," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said while speaking to a pool of reporters, before adding, "It is irresponsible to be saying this." Not stopping there, Spicer continued to deny that the administration had any plans to use the National Guard to help in their deportation efforts.
"There is no effort at all to round up, to utilize the National Guard to round up illegal immigrants," he confirmed. As of press time, Trump has not responded to the report, but has continued to bash the media on a daily basis, referring news outlets as "fake news" and reporters as "terrible people."
The draft memo says participating troops would be authorized "to perform the functions of an immigration officer.' https://t.co/bMpTwNHd2a
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 17, 2017
White House backlash
President Donald Trump hasn't even been in office for a month and he's already being forced to deal with the growing backlash against him, as well as his first major scandal.
With the exception of the right-wing leaning Rasmussen poll, the billionaire real estate mogul's favorability rating is hovering around just 40 percent. With retired Gen. Michael Flynn now out as National Security Adviser due to being caught taking part in illegal communication with Russian officials, only time will tell how Trump handles business moving forward.
