President Trump may mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up illegal immigrants, according to a new report — though the White House immediately called it “false.” The Associated Press said it obtained a draft memo that outlines a Trump administration proposal under consideration to mobilize troops in 11 states to round up unauthorized immigrants. According to the wire service, the 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana. [Trump Team Considers Deploying National Guard For Immigrant Roundup, By Daniel Halper and Bob Fredericks, New York Post, February 17, 2017]

Why not use the National Guard for deportations? The leaked plan to train and deploy National Guard troops from eleven States to hunt down and arrest illegal aliens was a excellent idea. While it would have been controversial, the plan would have immediately added thousands of immigration agents to the field to begin deporting the 11-30 million illegal aliens in the United States.This was something that should have appealed to President Trump. It is innovative, cost-effective, and would produce results. Deploying 100,000 immigration officers to the field would have been a game-changer for immigration enforcement.

It would have been something along the lines of Operation Wetback, effectively deporting a million or so illegal aliens within one year, and causing another million or so to self-deport. Continuing the program over one year would have had a cascading effect, as one or more family members were deported, the rest of the family, usually wives and dependent children, would be forced to leave as their primary breadwinner was deported and with the certain knowledge that the streets are being combed for them as well, they would have self-deported, with most illegals removed from the United States within 4 years.

This would have worked. The real question is why this did not get to Trump and who quashed it.