Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday that he’s deploying the National Guard in Georgia to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state, amid President Donald Trump’s push for greater immigration enforcement and a federal government crackdown on crime in several major cities.
Kemp’s office told Capital B Atlanta via email Tuesday that the estimated 75 Georgia National Guard soldiers and airmen should be on duty shortly after mid-September after participating in training and in-processing activities.
Unlike what’s happening in the nation’s capital, Kemp said his National Guard troops won’t be making arrests or conducting other law enforcement functions in the Peach State. They’ll be helping ICE with “administrative and logistic support tasks,” including appointment scheduling, biometric collection, data entry, and vehicle maintenance.
“I am proud to stand with President Trump’s team in the ongoing efforts to secure our nation’s border and keep Americans safe,” Kemp said in an emailed statement.
The deployment announcement came amid a push by the Trump administration to combat crime in several major U.S. cities across the country that happen to have Black mayors, despite major categories of crime being on the decline in those places.
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Democrats, including state Sen. Nan Orrock, have suggested Trump Atlanta will soon be on Trump’s list of targeted cities.
“[Trump] didn’t forget about Atlanta, he will come for Atlanta,” Orrock said at a recent Marci Collier Overstreet campaign event, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s only a matter of time.”
The White House pushed back Tuesday, echoing a common refrain from Trump about crime in largely Black cities.
“If Democrats spent half as much time addressing crime in their cities as they did going on cable news to complain about President Trump, their residents would be a lot safer,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Capital B Atlanta via email.
Trump has previously referred to Atlanta as “a killing field” despite a multiyear decline in the city’s murder rate.
Overall crime was down 8% year over year on Aug. 9, according to the latest available data from the Atlanta Police Department, which noted homicides were down 25% from the same time last year. Aggravated assault and robberies were up 20% and 35%, respectively.
ICE arrests in Georgia have also surged since Trump took office, according to Axios Atlanta.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order authorizing U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to ensure National Guard units in each state are properly trained and “available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate, as appropriate under law.”
Trump has focused much of his crime-related criticism on Chicago in recent days, calling the Windy City “a disaster,” on Friday. But on Monday, the president signaled hesitancy to send troops into Illinois’ most populous city without the consent of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat.
“I didn’t get a request from the governor,” Trump told White House reporters on Monday. “Illinois is affected maybe more than anybody else. And I think until I get that request from that guy, I’m not going to do anything about it.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, told NPR’s Morning Edition that sending National Guard troops into his city without Pritzker’s sign-off would be “illegal and costly.”
“The city of Chicago is not calling for American troops to occupy American cities,” Johnson told NPR. “It’s not democratic. It’s unconstitutional.”
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Kemp’s office said Georgia National Guard troops will report directly to local ICE leadership while remaining under his control and direction, differentiating deployment here from what’s been happening the past two weeks in Washington.
“The request to support ICE is different and separate from the ‘D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force’ mission,” Kemp’s office said.
Kemp’s team suggested concerns over federal government overreach by Trump are misplaced, noting that the Georgia National Guard “has a long history of partnering with federal, state, and local agencies to ensure the safety and security of our communities, our state, and our nation.”
