Trump Orders DHS to Add 20K Officers for Deportations

President Trump has told the Department of Homeland Security to add 20,000 officers to its deportation force, a move that would include using state and local employees. The order was part of a presidential proclamation issued Friday about pressing immigrants without documentation to leave the US voluntarily, the New York Times reports. Trump did not say how such a major expansion of immigration enforcement would be paid for.

DHS is to begin "deputizing and contracting with state and local law enforcement officers, former federal officers, officers and personnel within other federal agencies, and other individuals," the provision says. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which is part of DHS, has more than 21,000 employees, per the BBC. The ICE website says that among them are 6,100 deportation officers and more than 750 enforcement removal assistants. The White House website says the 20,000 additions are to be employed in a "full-scale, aggressive deportation surge." (More mass deportations stories.)