Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe made headlines this week by “activating” the National Guard to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The detail buried in most stories: He deployed just 15 people.
If the news landed in your inboxes, you might have been drawn in like this:
“Missouri Gov. Kehoe activates National Guard to assist ICE agents”
Or this:
“Missouri ‘authorizes’ National Guard to assist ICE’s deportations statewide”
Or this:
“Gov. Kehoe authorizes Missouri National Guard to assist in ICE enforcement.”
Bet you didn’t know from those headlines that this bold initiative involved 15 men and women in a state of 6.24 million people. Bet also you didn’t know that these poor folks will be assisting ICE’s creepy crackdown from the comfort of desks at undisclosed locations.
Far be it from me to minimize the potential impact of such an operation. I mean, dispatching 0.00024 percent of our population to work desk jobs is not nothing in the fight against crime.
At that rate, St. Louis County would qualify for two people. The city of St. Louis might proportionately receive three‑fifths of a person, in keeping with the prevailing thought patterns of many of our state legislators.
But let’s not diminish this bold commitment on the part of our governor. It was such a profound announcement that the media was captivated to the point of forgetting to ask some basic questions — or at least forgot to report the answers in all the excitement.
Such as these:
- What exactly will these 15 guardsmen be doing? Are they answering phones? Filing documents? Processing detainee records? Is this top‑secret law‑enforcement support, or an upgrade to the ICE employee lunchroom?
- Do they have security clearance to access ICE systems? These are federal databases containing immigration records, legal casework and sensitive personal information. If no clearance is needed, why not?
- What training — if any — did these guardsmen receive to do ICE work? Clerical support in a federal law‑enforcement agency isn’t just about typing fast. It involves complex processes, legal standards and chain‑of‑custody rules.
- How does pushing paper actually “free up” ICE field agents? In almost all law‑enforcement agencies, a clear distinction exists between personnel behind desks and those risking their lives in the field. Are we to believe that the guys wearing masks, kicking down doors and hauling off suspects also change printer cartridges in their spare time?
- Where, exactly, are these guardsmen being stationed? Which ICE offices? For how long? Who’s supervising them? Who requested them? And who benefits from their presence?
These questions answer themselves. The security clearances alone take months. Desk work doesn’t free up field agents. But here’s what does work for scoring cheap political points: a press release. And nothing more.
From the standpoint of millions of immigrants — legal or otherwise — the United States is functioning as a dictatorship. Racial and ethnic profiling of citizens and non‑citizens alike (many of the latter being here legally) has been sanctioned by the Supreme Court.
Most of us don’t experience that terror personally. But that doesn’t make it any less dangerously un-American.
Donald Trump and soulless minions like Deputy Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller gleefully terrorize America’s immigrant community by the hour. Like Kehoe’s frivolous announcement, this filthy enterprise rages on a foundation of lies.
According to recent data, about 65 percent of people booked into ICE detention have no criminal convictions whatsoever. More than 93 percent have no violent convictions. The agents supposedly “freed up” by these 15 guardsmen in Missouri are being dispatched to raid workplaces and homes to arrest individuals whose only violation is a civil immigration matter.
But the evidence shows this campaign isn’t just cruel — it’s catastrophically counterproductive. The Peterson Institute for International Economics projects that if 8.3 million undocumented immigrants are deported, GDP will fall 7.4 percent by 2028. When 500,000 undocumented workers were deported through the Secure Communities program, the result wasn’t more jobs for Americans — it was 44,000 fewer jobs held by U.S.-born workers.
Back in Missouri, 15 guardsmen will shuffle papers they’re not trained to process, potentially accessing systems they’re not cleared for, supposedly freeing field agents who do entirely different work.
None of this matters to Kehoe. The fraud isn’t a bug — it’s the feature. He’s not protecting Missourians’ safety. He’s protecting his own political standing, giving his base red meat while economists warn this policy will devastate the economy and cost American workers their jobs.
Fifteen Guardsmen. That’s what protecting politicians looks like.
- Ray Hartmann writes on Substack at Ray Hartmann's Soapbox.
