Free Republic

The chairman of the House Democratic Caucus said Friday that reports that the Trump administration had considered deploying tens of thousands of National Guard troops to apprehend undocumented immigrants were “outrageous” and “very reminiscent of what led up to World War II.” Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) made the statement in an interview for C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program shortly after the Associated Press broke news of the draft Department of Homeland Security memo. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the memo was “not a White House document” and that “there is no effort at all to round up, to utilize the...

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The Associated Press released a story on Friday claiming the Trump administration considered a proposal to round up illegal immigrants using as many as 100,000 National Guard troops. Now sources are saying perhaps several different versions of this memo were drafted up to smoke out the leaker.

....In 2010, former President Barack Obama said he would deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. They were sent to Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico. While National Guard troops were not authorized to arrest people found to be crossing the border illegally, they helped staff observation posts, monitor surveillance footage and build fences. In 2006, former President George W. Bush called up 6,000 National Guard troops to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. They were commissioned to help install border barriers, provide training and assist with border surveillance. The deployment was designed to support Customs and Border...

White House press secretary Sean Spicer forcefully denied on Friday that the Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up illegal immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border. 'That is 100 per cent not true. It is false. It is irresponsible to be saying this,' Spicer told reporters aboard the Marine One helicopter. 'There is no effort at all to round up, to utilize the National Guard to round up illegal immigrants.'

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press. However, a senior administration official told NBC News the report was "false."

OROVILLE, Calif. (KCRA) — Crews are beginning to make repairs to the spillways at Lake Oroville, the California Department of Water Resources said. “Efforts are underway to make repairs to both the primary and auxiliary spillways at Lake Oroville,” officials tweeted. Military-grade helicopters are picking up 1-ton containers of rocks from a parking lot near Lake Oroville, flying them to the erosion scar at the emergency spillway and dropping the containers into the hole.

They quote the following tweet: Estimating public expenditures of $162.3M for early January storms, @JerryBrownGov asks President Trump for a federal disaster declaration.

On Friday the Washington Post reported that Maj, Gen. Errol Schwartz will be removed from his post as head of the DC National Guard DURING the Trump Inauguration. Schwartz told the Post he would “never plan to leave a mission in the middle of a battle.”

What are they planning? The Army general who heads the D.C. National Guard and has an integral part in overseeing the inauguration will be removed from command effective at 12:01 p.m. Jan. 20, just as Donald Trump is sworn in as president.

The Army general who heads the D.C. National Guard and has an integral part in overseeing the inauguration said Friday that he will be removed from command effective at 12:01 p.m. Jan. 20, just as Donald Trump is sworn in as president.

Tyler DurdenJanuary 13, 2017"It doesn’t make sense to can the general in the middle of an active deployment," rages D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) after Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz, who heads the D.C. National Guard and is an integral part of overseeing the inauguration, has been ordered removed from command effective Jan. 20, 12:01 p.m., just as Donald Trump is sworn in as president. As The Washington Post reports, Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz’s departure will come in the midst of the presidential ceremony, classified as a national special security event — and while thousands of his troops...

The head of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz, said Friday that he has been ordered removed from his command effective Jan. 20, 12:01 p.m., just as Donald Trump is sworn in as president. Schwartz’s forced departure will come in the midst of the presidential inauguration that he has spent months helping plan alongside D.C. police, the U.S. Secret Service and other top District officials. He will turn over command to an interim as power transfers from one president to the next, and just before the inaugural parade marches down Pennsylvania Avenue. “The timing is extremely unusual,”...

Esteban Santiago, an Iraq war veteran who for reasons still unclear shot more than a dozen random travelers in an airport 5,000 miles from his Alaska home, lived just three blocks from a popular Veterans of Foreign Wars hangout. He never visited. Santiago spent two years in Alaska, working as a security guard and National Guardsman... he didn’t make much of a mark— except with law enforcement from a string of domestic disputes with his girlfriend and mother of his infant son. But, increasingly, his life was falling apart. Last January, he was arrested after roughing up his girlfriend, accused...

Washington is beefing up security in the run up to President-elect Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, including the deployment of 5,000 National Guard troops downtown amid security concerns. Mayor Muriel Bowser said despite increased security concerns, the city is prepared and ready for the event, she said Friday at a press conference with U.S. Secret Service and other security forces. "We prepare for the biggest number possible," Bowser said. Secret Service special agent Brian Ebert said the Washington field office is "well-prepared and ready for this inauguration." In addition to the 5,000 National Guard troops being deployed in the city, 3,000...

Bonuses and student loans to be forgiven in most cases In October, I reported that thousands of California soldiers in the National Guard soldiers were being forced to repay over-paid enlistment bonuses and student loans. Many of these brave men and women were struggling financially to meet the repayment terms. Shortly after the Department of Defense took a substantial P.R. hit once the details behind this travesty became widely known, Secretary Ash Carter announced he was suspending this program. Lawmakers have formally hammered out a compromise agreement that allows the Pentagon to forgive bonuses and benefits that were improperly awarded....

Approximately ten years after the Department of Defense offered hefty bonuses to provide an incentive for soldiers to re-enlist, the Pentagon is now demanding the recipients pay it back. The Los Angeles Times reported that only soldiers in certain jobs--intelligence, civil affairs and some noncommissioned officer posts--were entitled to receive bonuses. Investigators discovered rampart fraud and mismanagement by California National Guard officials who were gaming the system to meet enlistment targets. California Nation Guard’s incentive manager, retired Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, plead guilty to filing false claims of 15.2 million on behalf of her fellow California National Guard members. From...

For the last three years, retired California National Guard Master Sgt. Bill McLain’s wife, Terese, has repaid a bit of his enlistment bonuses to the Pentagon with a caustic note. Each month, she writes “blood money” on the $100 check — the token amount the McLains pay on the $30,000 debt they deny owing — that she sends to the Pentagon. “Shame on you. Extortion,” she writes on the envelope. The Pentagon cashes each check. Facing a groundswell of public outrage, the Pentagon scrambled this week to temporarily suspend its demands for thousands of California Guard soldiers to repay enlistment...

Link only: http://www.fox25boston.com/news/mass-national-guard-state-police-raid-81-year-old-womans-home-to-seize-pot-plant/454037484

Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order.