US President-elect Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that he plans to declare a national emergency on border security and use the US military to enforce a mass deportation of undocumented migrants.
During the election campaign, Trump promised to deport millions and stabilise the border with Mexico after record numbers of migrants crossed illegally during President Joe Biden’s administration.
On his social media platform, Trump amplified a recent post by a conservative activist that said the president-elect was “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion.”
After defeating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on November 5, Trump has been announcing a cabinet of immigration hardliners, naming former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting chief Tom Homan as his “border czar.”
At the Republican National Convention in July, Homan told supporters: “I got a message to the millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden’s released in our country: You better start packing now.”
Authorities estimate that some 11 million people are living in the United States illegally. Trump’s deportation plan is expected to directly impact around 20 million families.
While the US government has struggled for years to manage its southern border with Mexico, Trump has supercharged concerns by claiming an “invasion” is underway by migrants he says will rape and murder Americans.
During his campaign, he repeatedly railed against undocumented immigrants, employing incendiary rhetoric about foreigners who “poison the blood” of the United States and misleading his audiences about immigration statistics and policy.
Trump has not elaborated on his immigration crackdown in any detail, but during his election campaign, he repeatedly vowed to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up deportations.
Critics argue that the law is out of date, citing its most recent usage during World War II to keep Japanese-Americans in internment camps without due process.
The number of US border patrol interactions with migrants crossing from Mexico illegally is now roughly the same as in 2020, the final year of Trump’s first term, after peaking at a record 250,000 in December 2023.
