The Pentagon is reviewing a Department of Homeland Security request to deploy more than 20,000 additional National Guard troops to aid the Trump administration's widening crackdown on illegal immigration around the United States, according to officials and documents.
Homeland Security officials want the troops to help track fugitives, quell riots at detention centers and search for unaccompanied children in remote or hostile terrain.
Meanwhile, Pentagon and Customs and Border Patrol officials have inspected military bases in recent months from New Jersey to California as potential sites to detain an expected influx of migrants.
Keeping 20,000 National Guardsmen on duty for one year would cost $3.6 billion, according to a U.S. official briefed on the potential deployment. However, it's unclear how many Guardsmen are available to fill the request, according to a Defense official.