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On Friday, the AP reported that the Trump administration is considering plans to mobilize 100,000 National Guard troops in 11 states to round up, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants. The memo, allegedly written by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and addressed to both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, would militarize immigration enforcement in four states on the Mexican border and seven states contiguous to those four. Governors would be allowed to decide whether the National Guard in their state participated. The memo purports to serve as guidance for implementing the Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements executive order Trump issued in January. It has reportedly circulated among DHS staff for two weeks.

If implemented, this plan would clearly constitute a deportation forcethe kind that Trump boasted about during his campaign. The establishment Republicans who were brought in to sand down Trumps rougher edges, however, routinely denied that Trump said exactly what he indisputably said about his deportation force. Most notoriously, at the vice presidential debate, Tim Kaine described Trumps plan for a deportation force, and Mike Pence called his claim nonsense. Paul Ryan also told a DACA beneficiary that there would be no deportation force.

Now it appears that Trump may do precisely what he said he would do throughout his campaign. The White House promptly denied the AP story, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer told an AP reporter, I wish you guys asked before you tweeted on Friday morning. AP reporters say that they asked both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment but were not answered. Perhaps we should take Friday mornings denials about as seriously as we took Pences and Ryans claims about the deportation force before Trump entered the Oval Office.

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Here's the Plan for the Deportation Force Pence and Ryan Denied Would Ever Exist - Slate Magazine (blog)

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Traveling on behalf of President Donald Trump, Mike Pence will meet with German ChancellorAngela Merkel in Germany at the Munich Security Conference. Pence will also speak at the conference. After Munich, Pence will travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with European Union and NATO representatives.

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The theme in both Munich and Brussels will be reassurance according to a senior White House foreign policy adviser. The Vice President will outline the United States priorities for the transatlantic relationship as well as allow him to forge personal relationships with Americas most valued allies and partners. Pence is expected to repeatedly emphasize the need for NATO allies to increase burden sharing and show that the organization has the capability to defend against threats.

During his speech to the Munich Security Conference, the vice president will seek to reassure allies of the United States commitment to European partners and the transatlantic alliance. VP Pence is scheduled to make the second speech on the day he addresses the conference. According to the senior adviser, Pence will reaffirm the U.S.s commitment to NATO that the country has met its obligations while also calling out some members. The aim is to accelerate the efforts of these members.

VP Pence is also expected to speak of conflicts in Eastern Ukraine and the Minsk agreement as a framework for peace between Ukraine and Russia.

The heavy emphasis on reassurance for U.S. allies will be used to remedy any possible divisions that have been derived through media, perceptions or otherwise, according to the adviser. If U.S. allies need reassurance, Pence will convey that the U.S. will be there for her allies as they have been there for her.

In Brussels, the vice president will meet with EU and NATO representativesaccording to the senior White House foreign policy adviser.

As for whether the administrations loss of Gen. Mike Flynn will impact the vice presidents trip, a senior administration official expressed surety that U.S. allies wont question Pences position to speak on behalf of the Trump administration on any matter.

The senior administration official made clear that Vice President Pence works in tandem with the president, is traveling on behalf of the president, and his role will be to represent President Trump.

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana.

Excerpt from:
VP Mike Pence to Meet with Angela Merkel, Speak at Munich Security Conference - Breitbart News

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Mike Pence Caught in Power Struggle Wall Street Journal (subscription) Mike Pence showed his clout inside the White House with the Monday firing of Mike Flynn, who allowed the vice president to espouse false information about the national security adviser's conversations with Russian officials. But Mr. Pence also learned ... Pence's sphere of influence questioned in wake of Flynn falloutCNN Trump: I fired Flynn because of what he told PenceCNBC Mike Pence's delayed knowledge of Flynn's fibs hint he is outside Trump's inner circleChicago Tribune NBCNews.com -BuzzFeed News -Business Insider -New York Times all 8,332 news articles »

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Mike Pence Caught in Power Struggle - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

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(CNN) - Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to attend the Super Bowl on Sunday in Houston, two administration officials and a third source familiar with Pence's travel told CNN on Friday.

Pence will be the fourth sitting vice president to attend a Super Bowl. Vice Presidents Spiro Agnew, George H.W. Bush and Al Gore each attended the NFL championship game while in office.

Security was already slated to be tight at Sunday's event. The Department of Homeland Security had designated the Super Bowl as a top-tier national security event and federal officials have for months been involved in security planning and will help secure Houston's NRG Stadium.

Pence press secretary Marc Lotter declined to confirm Pence's attendance, but said the vice president's schedule would be released later Friday.

It's unclear whether Pence, the former Indiana governor, has a favorite as the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots face off Sunday, but that may not be the case for President Donald Trump.

Trump repeatedly touted his friendship with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft on the campaign trail and even secured the political support of Brady and Belichick, which Trump announced at a campaign rally on the eve of the November election at his final New Hampshire campaign event.

Meanwhile, Falcons' owner Arthur Blank criticized Trump earlier this week for his executive order suspending the US refugee program and banning citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from the US as well as for the White House's statement on the Holocaust, which made no mention of Jews.

"I'm troubled by anything directionally in our country that separates people," Blank told Newsday. "America started without any of us, other than Native American Indians. This country was built on inclusion and diversity, on celebration of those differences, supporting those differences, and everybody being the very best they can be in their own way. I'm opposed to anything that takes away from that."

Bush, the second sitting vice president to ever attend a Super Bowl, will also do the coin toss Sunday.

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Vice President Mike Pence to attend Super Bowl - Kern Golden Empire

Dalia Mohamed says she doesn't go out much since President Donald Trump's inauguration because of harassment she says her friends have experienced. Annie Ropeik/Indiana Public Broadcasting hide caption

Dalia Mohamed says she doesn't go out much since President Donald Trump's inauguration because of harassment she says her friends have experienced.

In Indiana, Vice President Pence's hometown has one of the top concentrations of skilled immigrant workers in the country. In Columbus, Ind., manufacturers and residents depend on open borders to move both products and people, but continued uncertainty over the Trump administration's immigration policies is leading to some anxiety there.

The first thing to know about Columbus, about 45 miles south of Indianapolis, is that it's a company town the headquarters of Cummins, a big global engine-maker. Its local staff represents a fifth of the Bartholomew County's entire labor force.

The second thing to know is that this town has the lowest unemployment rate in Indiana. Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce president Cindy Frey that says when jobs do come open, there are only three options:

"You can develop talent, you can import workers, or you can export jobs," Frey says. "And we're not ready to export jobs."

Developing talent takes time, so for now, Frey says this city is competing for job applicants worldwide. That means Columbus is trying its best to be welcoming for thousands of skilled foreign workers and their families, like Dalia Mohamed's.

The Sudanese-American citizens who live in a big, airy house a short drive from the Cummins plant, where husband, Khalidd Eleawad, is an engineer. About 1,400 of the company's 9,500 local workers, or 15 percent, were hired on H1-B visas.

Right now, Mohamed says her family is in limbo. They usually visit Sudan in the winter,then fly their Sudanese relatives to Indiana in the summer but with so much uncertainty around President Donald Trump's now on-hold immigration order, which targets Sudan an six other countries, they don't want to risk it.

Mohamed is Muslim and wears a hijab. She says the changes she's noticed in town since Trump's inauguration are palpable.

"I don't go out that much after Jan. 20, because my friends, they have been through so many harassments, so so that's why I just kind of stay home," she says.

Her husband Eleawad says this isn't good for his employer. He notes that Cummins relies on global diversity to help sell its engines around the world.

"If you depend on just I would say, 'true American' people to do everything, you wouldn't be able to go to European market, or Middle East market or China or India, because you have no idea about their culture, no idea about how to sell the product," Eleawad says.

Without those sales, Cummins and this city likely would struggle the local economy is that dependent on exports. That could be a big problem if President Trump or Congress follow through on proposals to tighten up trade, immigration or visa requirements.

"We'd have to offset that somehow," says Dave Glass, CEO of LHP, a Columbus company that, among other things, designs control systems for self-driving cars. "I think growing would be more difficult."

Glass says that he prioritizes hiring Americans it's required before trying for a visa but that there just aren't enough unemployed American engineers to fill his jobs.

"Each year, we're doing that process hundreds of times and in my understanding, in the last few years, we've had, like, three people apply," Glass says. "So it's not an option."

So while LHP and other companies have no choice but to hire and depend on immigrants, skilled immigrants like Egyptian engineer Omar Elmarazhi do have a choice.

"I'm highly educated, I have graduate degrees," the Cummins employee says. "I know that I'm positively contributing to the economy, and I know that whatever community I'm in, I can positively contribute."

As a highly skilled engineer, Elmarazhi chose to come to the U.S. and he says he can also choose to take his skills elsewhere if Columbus, Ind., becomes an uncomfortable place for him to work and live.

Original post:
Immigration Executive Order Causes Anxiety In VP Mike Pence's Hometown - NPR