{"id":5733,"date":"2025-10-02T18:17:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T23:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/missouri-guard-troops-assigned-to-duty-with-ice-working-without-pay-during-federal-shutdown-2\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T18:17:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T23:17:02","slug":"missouri-guard-troops-assigned-to-duty-with-ice-working-without-pay-during-federal-shutdown-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/missouri-guard-troops-assigned-to-duty-with-ice-working-without-pay-during-federal-shutdown-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Guard troops assigned to duty with ICE working without pay during federal shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, says Gov. Mike Kehoe should not have deployed the National Guard to assist ICE while the federal government is shut down. (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent)<\/p>\n

Gov. Mike Kehoe\u2019s decision to deploy Missouri National Guard soldiers to support immigration enforcement \u201cmakes no sense\u201d because they will not get paid until the <\/span>federal government shutdown<\/span><\/a> is resolved, the state Senate\u2019s Democratic leader said Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Kehoe announced that soldiers from the Guard would, on a volunteer basis, be assigned to provide administrative, clerical and logistical support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facilities in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

The shutdown started a few hours after Kehoe announced the deployment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knew that was coming, and to me that makes no sense,\u201d Beck said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spokeswoman Gabby Picard said that there will be up to 15 soldiers on duty at any particular time until authorization ends on Sept. 30, 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ICE continues to work while most of the government is shut down because the <\/span>budget bill approved in July<\/span><\/a> funded the agency <\/span>with $29.9 billion for enforcement<\/span><\/a> and $5 billion for detention through September 2029.<\/span><\/p>\n

When on federal deployment, members of the Guard are paid on the <\/span>same schedule<\/span><\/a> as active-duty personnel, with the next pay date being Oct. 15. No active duty military will receive pay until the shutdown is resolved.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tuesday news release said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth approved assigning Guard personnel to ICE facilities on July 25, allowing them to be paid from the federal treasury.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Missouri National Guard is uniquely equipped to provide this essential administrative support, and we are confident their contributions will be invaluable to immigration enforcement efforts,\u201d Kehoe said in a news release.<\/span><\/p>\n

While all the soldiers taking on the duty are doing so as volunteers, they expected to get paid, Beck said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure, when they did this, they didn\u2019t know that they\u2019d be doing it possibly for free for a while,\u201d Beck said. \u201cI\u2019m assuming they\u2019ll be made whole at some point, but I\u2019m sure they got bills just like everybody else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In response to Beck\u2019s criticism, Picard said the decision to assist ICE wasn\u2019t made hastily.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlanning for this activation has been ongoing for weeks, and has nothing to do with the unfortunate political games of the Democrats in Washington that have caused a government shutdown,\u201d Picard said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The deployment has also drawn criticism from labor unions and the ACLU..<\/span><\/p>\n

Lenny Jones, vice president and state director at the Service Employees International Union-Healthcare, said in a news release that the deployment is part of an increasingly authoritarian government.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just another power grab used to silence and intimidate people who disagree with the administration\u2019s anti-American policies,\u201d Jones said.<\/span>
\n<\/span>The ACLU said the deployment diverts resources from disaster recovery and other needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNational Guard troops should be reserved for genuine emergencies, not deployed to suit the president\u2019s political whims,\u201d Naureen Shah, director of policy and government affairs for the ACLU\u2019s Equality Division, said in a news release.<\/span><\/p>\n

The deployment should be unneeded because ICE has been hiring large numbers of new employees, Beck said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou tell me they can\u2019t keep up with the paperwork?\u201d Beck asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

The standoff in Washington is over the health care subsidies for marketplace health plans that are ending under the budget reconciliation bill passed in July. Democrats are demanding they be restored, while Republicans insist the government must be reopened before they will negotiate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beck said he wants Democrats in Congress to hold their position.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, the Republicans control everything, all three branches of the government,\u201d Beck said. \u201cSo the question you have to ask yourself is, why did they let it get to this point?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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