The new Trump administration will declare a state of emergency and use military assets to deport illegal aliens, President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed.
“Reports are the incoming [Trump] administration [is] prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton wrote on Truth Social earlier this month.
“TRUE!!!” Trump responded to Fitton’s post early Monday morning with his own post.
Trump repeatedly pledged during his campaign to deport illegal aliens who entered the country under the Biden-Harris administration.
Beginning on his first day in office, Trump has said, he will “launch the largest deportation program” in U.S. history.
“The president can declare a national emergency based on millions of unknown, unvetted aliens let in, including an increased number of national security threats [and] terror watch list hits,” Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement Monday.
“The Border Patrol needs to end the ability of aliens to appear between ports of entry, claim fear and be permitted to seek asylum,” Ries added. “Currently, the immigration statute permits that. Until that can be changed by legislation, the president needs the ability to at least pause it to stop the flow. Aliens must be directed to ports of entry to seek admission.”
In his first term, Trump declared national emergencies at the U.S.-Mexico border in February 2019 and January 2021. Trump used the 2019 emergency to counter the fentanyl crisis and begin constructing a border wall. His 2021 order extended the 2019 order for another year.
Sources around the incoming president have indicated Trump will begin by deporting criminal illegal aliens, such as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Tren de Aragua is a criminal organization founded in a Venezuelan prison; it now operates in multiple countries, including the U.S. The gang is active in every major city in Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Jose Ibarra, an illegal alien on trial for the murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley, is a confirmed member of Tren de Aragua, according to News Nation border correspondent Ali Bradley.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, over 660,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. today have criminal charges pending against them or have already been convicted of a crime.
“President Trump has made it clear we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats first,” Tom Homan, who Trump appointed his “border czar,” said of the deportation program during a recent interview on Fox News.
It remains unclear which military assets Trump plans to use at the southern border, but the National Guard has been used there for years.