GUARD Act Expands National Guard Role in Immigration Enforcement, Sets Minimum 5-Year Sentence for Assaulting Officers

The newly introduced Guarding US Authority for Removal and Detention Act, or the GUARD Act, is a short bill with two massive changes, both focused on significantly escalating the resources and penalties surrounding immigration enforcement. If you’re busy, the two main takeaways are: 1) It makes it easier to use the National Guard for domestic immigration enforcement, and 2) It creates a new federal crime for assaulting immigration officers that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.

Blurring the Lines: Military in Civilian Enforcement

Section 2 of the GUARD Act takes a big swing at the Posse Comitatus Act, which is the law that generally prevents the U.S. military from acting as domestic police. The bill carves out two major exceptions that would allow the National Guard to get involved in civilian immigration operations.

First, if the National Guard is on State duty, acting under the orders of their Governor, the Posse Comitatus restrictions simply won't apply. This means a Governor could deploy the Guard to conduct immigration enforcement operations—like catching or holding undocumented immigrants—without running into the federal law that separates military and police roles. Second, even if the Guard is called up under federal orders (Title 10 or Title 32), the restriction is lifted if they are strictly used for enforcing immigration laws, which the bill specifies includes 'catching or holding undocumented immigrants and carrying out removal orders' and 'border security operations.'

Why does this matter to the average person? The Posse Comitatus Act exists to keep military power separate from domestic policing, minimizing the risk of military personnel, who are trained for combat, being used against the civilian population. This bill essentially opens the door for military personnel to be involved in what are traditionally civilian law enforcement tasks—detention, removal, and policing—meaning more military presence in domestic operations and potentially more aggressive enforcement tactics across the board, even far from the actual border.

New Crime, Extreme Penalties

Section 3 of the bill creates a new, highly punitive federal crime targeting those who interfere with or assault federal immigration personnel (ICE, CBP, etc.) or state/local police who are assisting them. If you "knowingly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, or interfere" with one of these officers while they are doing their job, the minimum sentence is five years in federal prison, and it can go up to 20 years.

This is where the penalties get truly severe. If the assault results in bodily injury, the minimum sentence jumps to 10 years and can go up to 30 years. And if death results from the assault, the penalty is life in prison or even the death penalty. For context, this is an extremely rare level of punishment for an assault crime.

What does this mean in the real world? This provision significantly increases the stakes for any interaction with immigration enforcement. For someone being detained or removed, any attempt to resist or interfere, even if minor, could trigger a mandatory minimum five-year sentence. If an altercation occurs and an officer is injured, the person involved could face a mandatory decade behind bars. This level of mandatory sentencing is designed to be a massive deterrent, but critics often point out that such strict minimums can lead to disproportionate punishment for actions that might otherwise be treated less severely under existing assault laws.