The Trump administration authorized the deployment of National Guard troops to immigration facilities in 20 states beginning early next month, further entwining the military in civil and law enforcement functions.

The move undermines long-standing prohibitions on the use of the armed forces in domestic operations, sidestepping the Posse Comitatus Act and accelerating the U.S. transition into a police state, experts said.

The National Guard will be deployed in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, among other states, according to a defense official who was not authorized to disclose the information.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged it was now finalizing the parameters of its expanded collaboration with the Pentagon. “We’re engaged with the Department of Defense and we’re figuring out the next steps,” Tanya Roman, an ICE spokesperson told The Intercept.

Guard members will assist ICE officials in “alien processing” – administrative work preceding detention — in 20 states while ICE leadership will “direct” troops assigned to the mission, which will begin in early August, according to a memo first revealed on Wednesday by the New York Times.

“The National Guard serving as camp administrators for ICE’s infamous detention centers is a dangerous and shameful step for everyone involved,” said Sam Ratner, policy director at Win Without War.

The Pentagon told The Intercept that these troops will operate under so-called Title 32 status, meaning they will be under state, rather than federal, control, unlike deployments in Los Angeles and across the southern border. Experts say it hardly lessens the dangers to democracy.

“This move raises almost all the same concerns as using active-duty troops, and then some,” Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s liberty and national security program, told The Intercept. “This is yet another attempt to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally prohibits the military from engaging in civilian law enforcement activities.”

In his first six months in office, President Donald Trump has overseen the deployment of nearly 20,000 federal troops on American soil, including personnel from the National Guard, the Army, the........

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