President-elect Donald Trump confirmed his intention to use the U.S. military to carry out what he has vowed will be the largest mass deportation in American history.
Trump wrote “TRUE!!!” on his Truth Social network early Monday, replying to a post from Tom Fitton, the president of conservative legal group Judicial Watch, who said that Trump was reportedly “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”
Trump on the campaign trail pledged to secure the U.S.-Mexico border by finishing construction of a wall and by carrying out a mass deportation of undocumented migrants, including through the help of local law enforcement agents or the National Guard.
The incoming president’s immigration team has been taking shape as he prepares to begin his second administration in January. Trump has selected South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security and Tom Homan, the former acting head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, to serve as his border czar. Homan was the public face of Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies during the president-elect’s first term.
Trump and his team have not outlined how they will carry out their mass deportation effort, which will require substantial funding from Congress and the cooperation of countries willing to accept returned migrants. Beyond the logistical and funding hurdles, any effort to remove millions of migrants from the U.S. would likely face legal challenges.
The new administration’s deportation operations are likely to start by targeting the more than one million people in the U.S. who have no legal basis to stay in the country, either because they have committed crimes or exhausted appeals.
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