Trump vows to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations

President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he would declare a national emergency and use the military to execute his mass deportation plans.

Conservative activist Tom Fitton said earlier this month on social media that "reports are incoming" that Trump is "prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program."

Trump reposted Fitton's post Monday with the comment "TRUE!!!"

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised a "mass deportation" that would round up immigrants around the country who have violated the law.

"The Trump world has been very deliberately – or sloppily, depending on your point of view – mashing together the border and mass deportations," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. "They are two different topics."

Multiple presidential administrations have used the U.S. military in border enforcement, but U.S. law strictly prevents the president from using the military as a domestic police force, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Trump has declared a migration-related national emergency before. During his first administration, Trump used the National Emergencies Act to justify diverting billions of dollars in military construction funding to build a 30-foot steel fence along some portions of the U.S-Mexico border.

The House of Representatives sued the administration, as did environmental groups and immigrant advocates – cases that were put to bed after Trump left office and the Biden administration ended border fence construction. The Trump administration erected more than 400 miles of border barriers, though much of the fencing was replacement fencing, according to the Brennan Center.

Voters reelected Trump "by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, like deporting migrant criminals," said Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition. "He will deliver."

Migration at the U.S.-Mexico border declined to the lowest level since the Trump administration this year.

U.S. Border Patrol migrant encounters plummeted from more than 200,000 a month late last year to below 60,000 in July, August and September. Migration at the U.S. border climbed to all-time highs during the Biden administration amid pent-up demand for job opportunities after the global pandemic.

Lauren Villagran can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump to declare emergency, use military for mass deportation