By Charlie Savage and Michael Gold
Earlier this week, President-elect Donald Trump confirmed his intentions to declare a national emergency and employ the U.S. military in some capacity to support his plans for large-scale deportations of individuals without legal residency.
On his social media channel, Truth Social, Trump reacted overnight to a recent post by Tom Fitton, who leads the conservative organization Judicial Watch. Fitton suggested that Trump’s administration would “declare a national emergency and will use military assets” to tackle illegal immigration “through a mass deportation program.”
Around 4 a.m., Trump shared Fitton’s post, responding with the remark, “TRUE!!!”
Congress has provided presidents with extensive authority to declare national emergencies at their discretion, allowing them access to standby powers which include reallocating funds that Congress had earmarked for other purposes. For instance, Trump utilized this authority during his first term to allocate more money for a border wall than Congress was willing to authorize.
In interviews with The New York Times throughout the Republican primary campaign, as detailed in a piece published in November 2023, Trump’s chief immigration policy adviser, Stephen Miller, stated that military funds would be allocated to create “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” for immigrants while their cases progressed and until they awaited flights to other countries.
He indicated that the Homeland Security Department would oversee those facilities.
One significant hurdle to the extensive deportation plan that the Trump team has committed to in his second term is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently lacks the capacity to detain a much greater number of individuals than it presently holds.
This situation has occasionally resulted in the release of asylum-seekers as they await their hearings with immigration judges, a process criticized by some as “catch and release.”
The Trump administration believes that such facilities could enable the authorities to expedite deportations for immigrants contesting their removal from the country. The premise is that more individuals would willingly agree to leave rather than pursue a challenging effort to stay in the country if they were confined in the meantime.
When asked about the proposal, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh declined to comment, referring to it as “a hypothetical.” She noted that such a plan usually undergoes “a rigorous process” before implementation but chose not to provide further details.
Advocates for immigrants criticized the initiative, expressing deep concerns regarding its potential repercussions.
“President-elect Trump’s dystopian visions should alarm everyone, whether immigrant or native-born,” stated Karen Tumlin, director of the Justice Action Center, an immigrant advocacy group. “What he is describing would likely be illegal, and this measure would starkly oppose the legacy of service that my family was proud to contribute to.”
Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, emphasized that the implications would be far-reaching. “Families will be torn apart, businesses deprived of essential workers, and our nation will bear the consequences for years ahead,” she asserted.
Congressional Democrats echoed similar sentiments, arguing that such an action would almost certainly violate federal laws that prohibit military involvement on U.S. soil.
“We’re actively working to clarify that the Insurrection Act does not allow for such military deployment,” remarked Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., referencing the 1807 statute that grants presidents emergency powers to deploy troops domestically to restore order when deemed necessary. Under this law, “if no significant threat to public order exists, it would be illegal,” he added.
Conversely, Republicans have suggested that Trump’s proposal may not represent a drastic change from the current practices.
“Certainly they’re not law enforcement, but I need to understand their process,” stated Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who was the chief Republican negotiator on a bipartisan immigration deal that ultimately failed in the Senate after Trump encouraged the GOP to reject it. “If the National Guard is being utilized for transportation, that’s something they already do quite frequently.”
Far-right members of Congress and fervent Trump supporters have shown strong backing for his mass deportation plans. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., voiced support via social media Monday for utilizing the military in this endeavor, affirming that Trump was “100% correct.”
Miller has also mentioned the possibility of invoking public health emergency powers to limit the processing of asylum claims, similar to actions taken by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border in response to a surge of asylum-seekers and his redirection of military funds for his border wall in 2019 was seen as a means to resolve a funding impasse with Congress that had resulted in a government shutdown. This action triggered legal challenges that remained unresolved before President Joe Biden assumed office and put a stop to further construction of the border wall.
The Trump team asserted that it had devised a comprehensive plan to substantially increase deportations, which it believed could occur without necessitating new legislation from Congress, albeit with anticipated legal difficulties.
Other facets of the plan include augmenting the ranks of ICE personnel with law enforcement officers temporarily reassigned from different agencies, alongside sending state National Guard members and federal troops to enforce laws on domestic territory under the Insurrection Act.
Additionally, the plan aims to widen the scope of expedited removal, a process lacking due process currently applied near the border for recent arrivals, to individuals residing within the country who cannot demonstrate they have been in the U.S. for longer than two years.
The team also intends to halt the issuance of citizenship-associated documents, such as passports and Social Security cards, to infants born on U.S. soil to migrant parents lacking legal residency, aiming to terminate birthright citizenship.
Trump has indicated his commitment to realizing these promises through personnel announcements. He appointed Miller as a deputy chief of staff in his administration, wielding significant influence over domestic policy. Furthermore, Trump declared that he would designate Thomas Homan, who led ICE for the first half of Trump’s initial term and advocated for the separation of families to deter migrants, as his administration’s “border czar.”
Homan revealed to the Times in 2023 that he had met with Trump soon after the president-elect declared his intention to run for office again. In that meeting, Homan stated that he “agreed to return” during a second term and would “assist in organizing and executing the largest deportation operation this country has ever witnessed.”
