President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to make the biggest debut deportation attempt in American history – his signature 2024 campaign promise – as soon as he takes office, Hints this week That he would enlist the help of the US military in a massive campaign to deport undocumented immigrants.
Earlier this week, he shared a social media post indicating that he would declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry out deportations.
Yet, how exactly the military will be used to fulfill this promise of mass deportations is unclear. And there are unresolved legal questions about involving service members in immigration enforcement actions.
The Defense Department has provided operational support to immigration and border authorities for decades under both Republican and Democratic presidents. Approximately 4,000 service members – primarily from the National Guard – are currently authorized to support the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) security mission at the southwest border. According to US Northern Command,
Whereas long standing federal law The use of military force for domestic law enforcement is generally prohibited – including immigration arrests and deportations – with some rare statutory exceptions.
The Department of Defense's vast funding and resources could be instrumental in helping the incoming administration deal with the operational and financial challenges of carrying out mass deportations. The deportation branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a fraction of the resources it needs, with 6,000 agents and 41,000 detention beds. There are approximately 11 million immigrants estimated Staying in the US illegally.
What have Trump and his allies said about using the military for deportations?
In an interview with CBS's “60 Minutes” last month, Tom Homan, whom Trump has appointed his “Border Czar,” hinted that one way to increase manpower for the mass deportation plan could be rehiring retired ICE agents. But it has to be kept. Contractors can perform some operational tasks, he said, including handling transportation and setting up so-called “soft-sided” facilities, or tent detention sites, to hold migrant detainees.
Homan said transportation and supply assets from the Defense Department would also be helpful, suggesting that military aircraft could be used for deportations. But stephen millerThe incoming White House deputy chief of staff has gone even further than Homan, suggesting the National Guard could be deployed to arrest undocumented immigrants.
Miller said during this time, “We will appoint them as immigration enforcement officers.” a radio interview Last year. “They know their states, they know their communities, they know their cities.”
And while US law generally prohibits the use of armed forces for domestic law enforcement, during an interview new York Times Last year, Miller said the Trump administration would amend what is known as the Insurrection Act to create an exception that would enable the use of federal troops to detain migrants.
Miller also indicated that troops could be sent to the southern border with “deterrence and denial missions.”
“You insist on the fundamental constitutional principle that you do not have the right to enter our sovereign territory, even to request an asylum claim,” Miller said. Said At this year's CPAC. “The army has the right to establish a fort position on the border, to say that no one can cross here.”
Finally, Trump has promised to use a law – the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 Applicable To approve surveillance and detention of Italian, German, Japanese immigrants during World War II – to deport suspected immigrant gang members.
How can the army be deployed on the US border?
The role of the US military on the US–Mexico border dates back to the Mexican–American War, with an additional buildup of troops on the southern border during the Mexican Revolution and World War I.
“Basically for the last 40 years, military involvement at the border has been steadily increasing,” said Joseph Nunn, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, “and it's kind of grown ad hoc.” “It's deeply involved in how we approach border security and immigration.”
Experts told CBS News that members of the military deployed to the border have historically performed a variety of support functions — from operating surveillance planes and transporting U.S. Border Patrol personnel in helicopters to laying concertina wire and supporting Customs and Border Protection. Till maintenance of vehicles.
Homan's suggestion of using the military for some operational tasks that do not involve dealing with migrants would fall into this category and expand the duties performed by the National Guard and a small number of active-duty troops at the southern border. Under the previous administration. As recently as last year, soldiers were deployed At the border to assist the Border Patrol with administrative tasks such as warehouse management and clerical work.
Military involvement is now “essentially about getting access to more bodies and more aircraft,” Nunn explained, calling military mobilization a force multiplier. “Let's say you want to set up a checkpoint on a highway in Texas or Arizona. Under normal circumstances, you need five CBP agents to man a checkpoint. If you have access to military personnel, you can use one CBP “Four soldiers can run one checkpoint with the help of an agent. Then suddenly five CBP agents can run five checkpoints with the help of soldiers.”
,[The Trump administration] “The military will also be used to do things like create bases and facilities to detain people,” said Thomas Warrick, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. told cbs news“He can use the military to transport detainees across the country or actually deport them to other countries if they get landing rights.”
Can the US military act as domestic law enforcement?
Using the military in an active law enforcement role rather than in a supporting capacity would be more complex and unusual, but would be subject to at least one legal loophole.
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal armed forces from participating in law enforcement activities unless explicitly authorized by Congress. But the Insurrection Act of 1807, which Miller cited, allows the president to use the military in domestic matters that require it. While the National Guard is under state control and is not activated for federal service, it is not subject to the Posse Comitatus.
Abraham Lincoln used it during the Civil War, and in the 20th century, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy had relied on the law to desegregate schools, deploying troops to the South following the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. , It was most recently used in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush after city and state leaders Seeks federal help to suppress LA riots,
According to the law, the military can be activated to enforce laws or “suppress insurrection” on U.S. soil whenever “unlawful obstructions, assemblies, or assemblies, or insurrections” occur in order to enforce federal law in that state. Makes it “impractical”. “Normal Order of Judicial Proceedings.”
Can this be challenged in court?
Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said it would be “blatantly illegal” to use the military to carry out deportations under the Alien and Sedition Act, because current circumstances do not allow it.
“The law requires invasion by a foreign government,” said Gelernt, who previously challenged several of the Trump administration's immigration policies. “That's not what's happening with immigration.”
There is already an agency, ICE, that enforces immigration laws with arrest powers that the US military does not have.
Nunn said, “It was designed for unexpected emergencies,” but he also said, “Its text provides the President with broad discretion” and that there were “no meaningful criteria” to justify implementing it. ” Is.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1827 Martin vs Mott The President has the sole authority to decide whether the army needs to be deployed in a situation. However, “if you can prove that the President invoked the Insurrection Act in bad faith, which would be a high hurdle to clear but not impossible, you can potentially challenge the decision to invoke the Insurrection Act.” ,” the nun explained. The centuries-old law does not allow the military to violate constitutional rights or otherwise violate applicable federal law.
Peter Favre, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University who focuses on civil-military relations, said using the military as law enforcement would be controversial and could undermine confidence in the military, even if its There is some legal matter for this.
“This is not what the military trains for, but above all, it will be deeply politically polarizing because there will be many Americans who will see this as an inappropriate mission, a betrayal of our American values or something else,” Favre said. Said, who has written the book “Thanks for Your Service: The Causes and Consequences of Public Confidence in the US Military.”
Congress has no role in enforcing the Insurrection Act. In July, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, renewed his legislative effort to change the law. He first introduced a bill reforming the Insurrection Act in 2020, following Trump's threat to use troops to respond to civil rights protests across the US following the police killing of George Floyd, but faced Republican opposition. And their efforts stalled due to pushback from the Trump administration.
What would happen if Trump declared a national emergency at the border?
Trump declared a national emergency at the border during his first administration, after Congress refused to fund border wall construction. He used the announcement to unilaterally remove Pentagon funding for border wall expansion.
“The Pentagon budget – that's where the money is,” Warrick said. “This is where the people are. This is where the planes are.”
According to the American Immigration Council, the long-term cost of deporting 1 million people per year could average $88 billion annually, which would exceed the Department of Homeland Security's $62 billion budget in fiscal year 2025 and total nearly $500 million over a decade. Will be 968 billion dollars. The operation will also demand lightning-speed expansion of immigration court systems and detention facilities.
“It's going to be very expensive,” Nunn said. “And not only will this be directly costly, but it will also come with opportunity costs – every military service member and military asset that is sent to assist in a mass deportation program or to assist in border security, that is a service member or property that is not performing its normal duties.”
Contributed to this report.
