LITTLE ROCK -- The ACLU of Arkansas today condemned Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ announcement that the Arkansas National Guard will be deployed to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with immigration enforcement in communities across the state.
“This is an abuse of power that jeopardizes Arkansans’ rights and safety,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas. “Governor Sanders is using our state’s servicemembers to advance a fear and race based political agenda at the expense of civil liberties, Arkansas families, and our most fundamental constitutional principles. The National Guard’s role at home is to protect Arkansans - not to target us in our communities.”
Under the governor’s order, up to 40 Arkansas National Guard personnel will be assigned across Little Rock, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, and Camp Robinson to support ICE. Guardsmen will be tasked with transporting detainees, assisting with processing, and performing clerical work to facilitate detentions — activities that put servicemembers in legal jeopardy and increase the risk of civil rights violations.
“Whether in uniform or plain clothes, federal agents and military personnel are bound by the Constitution,” Dickson said. “Every Arkansan has the right to be free from unlawful searches, to due process, and to equal protection under the law. Deploying military troops into our communities to help ICE racially profile us and tear families apart is an attack on our rights and dangerous for all of us.”
This action is part of a broader national strategy of manufacturing crises to justify sweeping executive power.
“Through this manufactured emergency, Governor Sanders is not making Arkansas safer — she is stoking fear, scapegoating immigrants, inviting racial profiling and undermining the rule of law,” Dickson added. “Immigrant families are part of our communities, our congregations, our schools, and our workplaces. Treating them as enemies to be rounded up and detained is un-American and unacceptable.”
Learn more about your rights when encountering law enforcement or military troops here.
Report interactions with ICE, the National Guard or police here.