Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said he hasn’t received any specific assistance requests from federal immigration authorities thus far, but would consider them.
“I would want to evaluate anything and everything that comes to us, and then try to do the right thing for the people of Kentucky, for the safety of those involved,” Beshear said in a Thursday news conference. "My approach is that border security is national security."
Kentucky has accepted “certain requests” of law enforcement in the past for things “around but not directly related to immigration enforcement,” Beshear said.
“Certainly there are instances where if we know of somebody who has broken the law, that has committed a violent offense, then that's somebody that we would normally work with, whether it's with immigration or just regular law enforcement, to apprehend and make our community safer,” Beshear said.
Immediately upon entering office, President Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders, including one that called for the immediate removal of all those in the country without legal status by extending the Department of Homeland Security’s presence in all 50 states.
The first law that Trump signed in his second term was the Laken Riley Act that requires a migrant without legal status be federally detained if accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a police officer or any violent crime. It does not require a person to be convicted first.
Orchestrated round-ups of immigrants lacking legal status have already begun across the country, but Beshear said Thursday that his office has not been informed of “any specific raid anywhere in the Commonwealth.”
The second-term governor appeared skeptical of deploying the Kentucky National Guard to aid in immigration enforcement raids, saying he would have to assess whether the groups in question have the appropriate training.
“Most of the National Guard are your neighbors. They have jobs that aren't necessarily in law enforcement, that don't have certain types of training that would be like those that immigration officers would use, say, in carrying out a raid,” Beshear said. “Using some of those individuals would not be safe in an operation that they don't have the training for.”
The acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo last week finding that the “actual or imminent mass influx” of immigrants without documentation across the U.S. southern border endangers every state and called for the “assistance of State and local governments in all 50 states.”
Beshear said he believed the country “must enforce our immigration laws,” but urged understanding for those escaping violence and oppression.
“We ought to be recognizing that while we are enforcing our immigration laws, they are people,” Beshear said. “They are children of God.”
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
