President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he plans to ask the U.S. military to assist with a massive deportation effort of illegal immigrants who entered the country during the Biden administration.
Mr. Trump took to Truth Social, his social media platform, where he verified a statement by conservative group Judicial Watch that he is preparing “to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”
“TRUE!!!” Mr. Trump wrote.
He did not reveal details about the plan.
It is unclear whether Mr. Trump envisions U.S. troops acting as deportation officers with arrest powers or using them in a support role.
Trump officials previously signaled that they expected the second option.
It’s also unclear whether Mr. Trump’s vision is for troops to speed up deportations at the southern border or as part of an effort to scour the interior for illegal immigrants who have settled in American communities.
Mr. Trump’s one-word statement, posted at 4:03 a.m., ignited social media.
His defenders said it was the bold action they anticipated.
Opponents envisioned troops going door to door in a chaotic operation and said heavy military involvement could break the law.
They raised the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the Army and Air Force from being used for domestic law enforcement. A similar law applies to the Navy and Marine Corps.
Exceptions include support from state and local police for counternarcotics operations. The law also doesn’t apply in an invasion, which is how Mr. Trump and other conservatives have described the surge of illegal immigrants crossing the border in recent years.
Vanessa Cardenas of America’s Voice, a leading immigration lobbying group, called the invasion argument a “false notion.”
“Let’s be clear, this is the adoption of a White nationalist conspiracy theory, already linked to multiple deadly acts of gun violence against civilians, which is driving federal policy and Republican agendas,” she said.
She speculated that Mr. Trump would deport “mixed-status families” with people in the U.S. legally and illegally.
Tom Homan, whom Mr. Trump has tapped as his border czar, said those in the country illegally will be targets and those with criminal records will be top priorities.
Mr. Homan has also promised to deliver “shock and awe” to the large wave of illegal immigrants that crested over the U.S. in the past four years.
The numbers grew as President Biden reversed the border controls that Mr. Trump had implemented in his first administration.
After the border set records for chaos in December, Mr. Biden embraced a more hard-line approach. Although the pace of unauthorized migration has dropped, the nationwide total is still above the levels when Mr. Trump left office.
In his first administration, Mr. Trump harnessed emergency powers for immigration. He used an emergency declaration to commandeer part of the Pentagon budget to help build hundreds of miles of border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
He also triggered special powers for his travel ban, which barred entry from some nations with terrorism ties — most of them majority-Muslim. He used special emergency health powers to shut down the border and quickly expel illegal immigrants after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using troops at the border has plenty of precedent. Every president since George H.W. Bush has tapped the military to help with border enforcement.
In recent years, the military role has been strictly limited to supporting operations such as tracking illegal border crossers or handling office tasks to free Border Patrol personnel to return to the field.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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