United States President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed he is “prepared” to declare a national emergency and use military assets to fulfil his 2024 election campaign promise to carry out mass deportations.
Trump announced on Monday in a short post on his Truth Social platform in response to a post by Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch.
Fitton had written on November 8 that reports showed the incoming Trump administration was “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets” in its “mass deportation” push.
Trump replied: “True!!!”
The statement is the firmest message yet on how Trump plans to fulfil his campaign promise to conduct the “largest deportation operation” in US history.
The effort has spurred condemnation from rights advocates and raised questions about the feasibility and the limits of Trump’s power as president to remove millions of undocumented immigrants from the country.
The Republican president-elect is also all but assured to face a mountain of legal challenges however he proceeds.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said on Monday that under US law, presidents may declare a national emergency and exert emergency powers only in specific situations.
“And ‘use the military for deportations’ isn’t one of those specific things,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote on social media in response to Trump’s remarks.