EDITORIAL: Amid Trump immigration gaffes, Guard intervention would be disastrous

The Sentinel joins Gov. Jared Polis and others in expressing “deep reservations” about using National Guard members to enforce federal immigration laws.

The threat from the Trump administration to pull as many as 20,000 guard troops from a mix of states into the service of ICE agents raises a wide range of alarms and obstacles.

Chief among the detriments of such a plan would be the expectation of turning American Guard members against fellow Americans — on U.S. soil. The Trump administration has made no plans nor details public about the proposal, reported first by the New York Times and this week by Colorado Newsline.

While Guardsmen are not police, there is a historical case for their being used for such a purpose. Invoking the U.S. Insurrection Act in 1992, former President George H.W. Bush sent Guard troops to Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots. The decision to deploy armed Guard troops against Americans has since been accepted as a dubious act of desperation after LA police lost control of widespread and violent riots, looting and destruction. The military community itself has long lamented the call by Bush to send in troops, in part because of issues linked to timing, communication and, primarily, that U.S. military troops are not police. They are warriors.

The bigger mistake, based on recent U.S. history, is that the dilemma of trying to round up and deport millions of immigrants deeply embedded in communities in Aurora, Denver and across the country, is in no way similar to days of chaotic race riots and violence, as was the case in the Rodney King conundrum.

There is a reasonable argument to be made to enlist the National Guard to provide stability to any American crisis or disaster. President Donald Trump and others, however, have long mischaracterized the U.S. immigration quagmire, and Trump has routinely lied about it. The only crisis that exists linked to immigration is that the United States does not have a plausible, enforceable and practical immigration policy. For decades, the problem, however, has generated endless political crises.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott created a humanitarian crisis about two years ago when he trafficked as many as 40,000 immigrants to the Denver area as a political stunt, creating very real problems for the immigrants shipped here and the humanitarian workers attempting to accommodate them. Using National Guard troops in an instance like that, sending them to Texas to prevent Abbott’s attack on other states, would be far more justifiable than sending rifle-clad Guard troops into apartment buildings to demand papers from residents.

Polis correctly points out that 20,000 Guard troops already have critical jobs to do, locally, nationally, and across the globe.

“Our national guard members play an important role in protecting our state at home and abroad and the Governor would have deep reservations about pulling guard members away from core functions at a time when resources are being cut in these critical areas, further straining resources needed for public safety by diverting resources to a federal responsibility,” Polis spokesperson Shelby Wieman said in a statement to Colorado Newsline. 

The quagmire points to the lack of a qualified plan for immigration reform in Congress, which must include federal funding adequate to recruit, hire and train enough qualified personnel to carry out the necessary legal and security requirements to enforce a satisfactory law.

Repeatedly vetted and well-documented studies have shown that widespread consternation among some Americans about immigrants is based on hysteria and outright disinformation.

Immigrants as a group are far less likely than American citizens to commit any kind of crime. Immigrants almost always are drawn to the United States because of the promise of employment. The vast majority of immigrants work, pay taxes and become undifferentiated from everyone else in their communities. Endless U.S. business sectors not only thrive on the availability of immigrant labor, their existence depends on it. 

There is no reason for the federal government to take up state arms against residents in other, sovereign states. The move would emulate a civil war in America that does not exist.

This issue is a political crisis that Trump faces among his own political party and supporters. Trump exaggerated and outright lied not only about the extent of and the solution to the immigration problem, but how he would solve it simply by dictating fiats and imposing mass deportations.

Polis and Colorado’s entire congressional delegation should show their support for their constituents and their state and tell Trump, ‘no.’