White House Immigration Update: Immigrants Urged To Trust Police Amid Reports That National Guard Will Round Them Up

A Colorado police department reached out to its local immigrant community shortly after the Associated Press released an 11-page document Friday claiming that the Trump administration planned to mobilize National Guard troops to round up undocumented immigrants. Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz tweeted early Friday that his department will not “investigate, enforce, or detain solely for immigration status.” Metz urged those in the community to call 9-1-1 if they needed emergency assistance.

Many people took to social media to applaud the message. Aurora is home to roughly 359,407 people.

“Aurora has problems but the police are not one of them! MUCH RESPECT for you & your dept.! And Thank you for your respect!” a Twitter user wrote.

“It would be great to have you come out to our schools and meet with families and students. They are fearful,” wrote another.

The White House has since denied the reports.

“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 told reporters.

The “draft memo” by Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly reportedly called up to 100,000 guard troops to track down undocumented immigrants in border states such as California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, as well as non-border states Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. The document can be read at http://apne.ws/2l1Dj0k.

Spicer called the report “100 percent not true.” “I don’t know what could potentially be out there, but I know that there is no effort to do what is potentially suggested,” he said.

If the changes in the report were executed, the outcome could have been disastrous. Nearly one-half of the 11.1 million people who reside in the U.S. without authorization live in the 11 states mentioned in the AP report, according to Pew Research Center estimates based on 2014 Census data.