"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."

ADVERTISEMENT

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.