The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has responded with a “true” to the information from Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative organization Judicial Watch, published on Truth Social – the social network founded by Trump himself –, in the suggesting that the incoming administration is “prepared to declare a national emergency and use military assets” to carry out its mass deportation program.
Trump, who promised to start deporting migrants from day one of his term, has not yet revealed more details of how he will carry out the “largest deportation in the history” of the United States. Until now, it was possible to intuit that Trump would use his majority in Congress to allocate more funds to his immigration policies. In a recent interview on NBC, Trump assured that his plan to pursue migrants and expel them would have “no limits in cost.”
On previous occasions, he and his closest circle had already suggested the participation of the army when applying their immigration policies. During the campaign, Trump promised deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that allows for the detention and summary expulsion of any foreign citizen over the age of 14 who comes from a country at war with the United States. Although the United States has not formally declared war on any country since 1942.
The intention to use the military and presidential power to declare a national emergency further darkens the prospects on the border. In his future cabinet, Trump has already surrounded himself with the former architects of his past immigration policies, such as the white supremacist Stephen Miller or Thomas D. Homan, whom Trump baptized as his “border czar.” Homan was one of the architects of the policy that separated migrant families at the southern US border. More than 5,500 minors were separated from their parents at the border with Mexico under its “Zero Tolerance” policy.
Organizations that work with migrants, both managing shelters and providing legal help, are already preparing for swift executive action by the Trump presidency once he is sworn into office. One of the volunteers who works providing assistance to migrants arriving in Washington DC explained to elDiario.es that they are already preparing for a “hot January.” In Arizona, three weeks before the elections, Tim Doherty, a volunteer who works with Los Samaritans on the border with Mexico, reported the case of a migrant man in Tucson who had been deported after neighbors reported him to the police for a discussion. “These types of situations will increase with Trump coming to power, I have no doubt,” Doherty explained.
The appointments of his cabinet and the clues that Trump is leaving about his mass deportation plan are also a tool of the politics of fear with which he is playing with migrants. Each of the president-elect’s movements and words seeks to harangue his followers — who have voted for him expecting to see a mass deportation — and scare migrants so that they may even leave the country on their own.
Declare a national emergency
In 2019, during his first term, Trump already declared a national emergency with the border with Mexico. At that time he did it so he could unlock billions of dollars that Congress refused to approve to build the wall. The use of presidential power to declare a false national emergency to resolve a political conflict and prevail over the legislature led to a constitutional conflict.
The National Emergencies Act allows the president to declare emergencies with just a signature on an executive order, and presidents can renew those emergencies each year indefinitely. Congress can vote to end an emergency, but in practice, it needs a veto-proof majority to do so. More than 30 organizations, such as the Brennan Center for Justice, submitted a letter to Congress in October to reform this law before the end of the year. If not reformed, Trump could use it again.
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