‘True’: Trump expected to use military for mass deportations, declare ‘national emergency’
Donald Trump has taken to social media to proclaim that he’s ready and willing to use the military in order to carry out his plan for the “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants by declaring a “national emergency.”
Earlier this month, conservative activist Tom Fitton wrote on Truth social, “Reports are incoming [Donald Trump] administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.” Today, Trump “re-truthed” Fitton’s statement with a one word response “TRUE!!!”
Anti-immigrant rhetoric was a mainstay of the Trump campaign, reaching its xenophobic apex at Trump’s infamous Madison Square Garden rally where Trump told a crowd of thousands that he would “rescue” towns that have been “invaded and conquered” by “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals,” and then
“kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.”
Despite the exorbitant cost that would come with deportation of over 11.7 million people, Trump has declared that his mass deportation plan comes with “no price tag”. He has also taken to filling his Cabinet with a rogue’s gallery of immigration hard-liners, naming Tom Homan his “border czar.” Homan promised “shock and awe” on day one of his tenure in the position, a chillingly military-esque term is in line with Trump’s warlike rhetoric surrounding immigration policies.
While U.S. presidential administrations have used the military as border security before, the law strictly forbids the use of military personnel as domestic police. However, Trump has used state of emergency declarations to make use of the military before, and diverted billions of dollars in military funding towards the construction of a border wall during his first presidency.
Although Trump and his anti-immigration allies are no doubt prepared to crack down on his first day in office, legal experts are skeptical that a mass deportation will come to fruition. Despite Trump’s plan to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out the deportations, it’s not likely that this law will give him constitutional authority to do so.
The law allows the president to detain and deport people from a “hostile nation or government” on U.S. soil, and was used in the past to detain immigrants from Germany, Japan and Italy during World War II – nations with whom the United States was actively at war. As the United States is not currently in a state of declared war against any nation, the Alien Enemies Act cannot be used against immigrants. Trump’s plan to use similar at-war tactics against undocumented will surely face significant legal challenges and state government pushback.
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