Speaking beside President Trump and other cabinet secretaries on Thursday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth didn’t rule out the possibility that the U.S. military could play a larger role in immigration-enforcement efforts in the future.
“What we’ve done so far is — is stand alongside federal law enforcement in every way, facilities and personnel,” Hegseth said during a news conference on Thursday when pressed by National Review about whether the administration supports sending National Guardsmen to U.S. cities for the express purpose of aiding deportation and immigration enforcement.
“But also, we have — we have a great deal of lift inside the military. We’re able to move assets in a way that no other aspect of the U.S. government can,” he added in the news conference, which centered around the White House’s new task force against drug cartels.” And so, where we can rapidly assist with mass deportations, we have been happy to do that.”
Watch the exchange here: