Alaska National Guard members to help ICE in Anchorage office

Five members of the Alaska National Guard are set to help federal officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at their office in Anchorage as the Trump administration seeks to increase deportations and restrict migration.

"The ICE Homeland Security Investigation Anchorage office requested National Guard assistance, the Office of the Secretary of War authorized the assistance, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved the request," the Alaska National Guard wrote in a prepared statement Tuesday.

Dunleavy's office wrote in an email that the governor was not available for an interview about the deployment Tuesday.

"The Alaska National Guard members joined the guard to serve our nation. This support they are providing the Anchorage ICE office is in service of the nation," deputy press secretary Grant Robinson wrote. "Any future requests for administrative and logistical support will be considered on a case-by-case basis."

Maj. David Bedard with Alaska National Guard Public Affairs said that the five Guard members come from both the Army and Air sides of the organization, and from a mix of career fields.

"The Alaska National Guard members are administratively supporting the Enforcement & Removal Operations section and Homeland Security Investigations section," the Guard wrote in its statement. "Their mission includes a wide range of duties, from vehicle fleet management and safety compliance to office support and processing purchase orders."

The Alaska National Guard plays a critical role in an array of state affairs. Most often, members are called up in the case of natural disasters, as in the recent flooding from ex-Typhoon Halong in Western Alaska. Elite pararescue medics and aviators are routinely dispatched for complex rescue efforts in some of the world's most challenging terrain. Guardsmen are also regularly deployed abroad to assist in combat support and logistics capacities.

According to the Alaska National Guard, the five members assigned to ICE's Anchorage office will help federal officials with clerical duties. Per the organization's Tuesday statement, those include: managing vehicle maintenance; customer service and "front-door support"; escorting vendors and service providers through the building; inventory control; checking fire extinguishers; moving office equipment; and assembling furniture.

"This partnership aims to assist ICE in its daily operations under the authority of Section 502(f) of Title 32 of the U.S. Code," the Guard wrote.

That's the section of the federal code specifying that the secretary of the Army or Air Force may order Guard members "to perform training or other duty" in addition to their other outlined activities.

"Title 32 covers those activities performed by state National Guard units when they remain under the control of their own state governors and generals but receive federal funding to assist with a federal mission," U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb wrote in a November ruling siding with the District of Columbia over the Defense Department in the deployment of more than 2,000 National Guard members to Washington, D.C.

Legal critics have pointed to the government's increasing use of Title 32 in attaching state National Guard personnel to federal missions with an overt political agenda. Traditionally, Guard units are either used for state-level affairs, or else called up to assist in extreme domestic emergencies, such as an insurrection, terrorist attack or major natural disasters.

Use of Title 32 authority by President Donald Trump's administration has been cited in several recent court challenges over the deployment of Guard units into American cities, including lawsuits by Washington, D.C.; Portland, Oregon; and Los Angeles.

The Title 32 designation also means costs associated with the assignment will be paid for by the federal government.

"The state does not incur any cost," Bedard said.

Aggressive immigration enforcement, including more frequent use of detention and deportation, has been a central federal policy in Trump's second term. In Alaska, that's meant an increase in the number of people taken into immigration custody, most of them held in jail facilities run by the Alaska Department of Corrections. For a period of time this summer, dozens of other men in ICE custody were flown into Alaska from other states and held in Department of Corrections facilities.

In 2024, around 20 members of the Alaska National Guard were deployed to the southwest border, along with two helicopters, to provide aviation support to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. That mission fell under Title 10, the section of U.S. code detailing the rules and functions for the armed services.

ICE lists a location for its Anchorage field office at an address in the Fairview neighborhood east of downtown. Reached by phone, an officer directed questions to an agency email account for media inquiries. In response to specific questions about ICE's operations in Anchorage, a spokesperson emailed a statement.

"ICE calls on partner agencies when mission requirements—logistical, administrative, or operational—exceed existing federal capacity. Those partnerships allow (Enforcement and Removal Operations) to surge resources quickly, safeguard the public, and uphold federal immigration law without compromising ongoing enforcement activity," said public affairs officer Jason Koontz with the Department of Homeland Security.

According to the Guard, the assignment assisting ICE in Anchorage could last up to a year.

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