GOP applauds Trump plan to use military for deportations, some expect legal fights

President-elect Donald Trump’s Monday confirmation of plans to declare a national emergency and use the military to carry out the mass deportation of illegal aliens has Republicans jubilant and Democrats in a panic.

“TRUE!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social, in response to a post from Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton about reports Trump planned such a move. Trump has also discussed using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speedily remove criminal aliens. The military cannot traditionally conduct law enforcement operations without congressional authorization, though the National Guard is not subject to that restriction.

Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Ron Vitiello, however, told The New York Post that military assets could conceivably aid with “transportation or construction as they have done before.”

Trump campaigned on mass deportations for the millions of illegal immigrants within the United States, saying the nation has “no choice” but to remove them and that cost would not be a concern. "When people have [been] killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag," he added.

Trump struggled to secure legislative wins to codify his immigration efforts during his first term and his executive orders faced considerable judicial scrutiny. This time around, Trump and his team have articulated some legal theories behind the moves, such as the national emergency and Alien Enemies Act.

Speaking on the John Solomon Reports podcast, former Trump National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz said Trump’s Monday confirmation was “another sign of how dead serious Donald Trump is on addressing this illegal migrant crisis.”

“There's going to be legal challenges to this, but there have been instances where there were emergencies where American troops were used inside the United States over the last 50 to 75 years. I think they have a pretty good case for this,” he added.

“There's been so much media about the horrible crimes being committed by illegal migrants who have come into this country every day,” Fleitz went on. “There's video of court hearings and murders and other violence being committed by these migrants. We see our major cities are suffering because they have to take care of all these migrants that are coming across the southern border. This has to stop. These migrants have to be sent home.”

To carry out that mission, Trump appointed former acting ICE Director Tom Homan as his “border czar,” a position outside of existing executive agencies, with the authority and prerogative of overseeing deportations.

“It just really shows how this is a top priority for the incoming administration,” said former U.S. Office of Citizenship Chief Alfonso Aguilar last week on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show.

“One of the top two issues, inflation in the border, and the president is acting on it. And all you got to do is look at his nominees, like Tom Homan, and you know he is serious about it,” said Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wisc. “It's got to stop.”

Potentially complicating Trump’s efforts will be the near-certain legal challenges to his legal rationale, but an organization closely aligned with Homan has been preparing for that eventuality.

“You know, we've been working on this issue, trying to make sure we are documenting previous uses of the US military on this kind of an issue,” the Heritage Foundation’s Victoria Coates told “Just the News, No Noise.” Homan has been a senior fellow at the conservative organization in recent years.

 “What are the authorities? What is possible to be done? What are the secondary effects?” she asked. “Because if, for example, you designate a cartel, a terrorist organization, and yes, they fill a lot of the criterion, but if you do that, then you give everyone who is fleeing from a terrorist organization claims to asylum.”

“So you might be igniting much, much more immigration by trying to take action against it,” she warned. “So, we're trying very hard to work through that in a series of tabletop exercises, almost the way you would war game and exercise, and see if we can come up with the best, most practical recommendations so that the President-elect can move in.”