Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) opposes President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for declaring a national emergency and deploying the military to execute the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, saying the operation would create a “terrible image” for the U.S.
“I’m not in favor of sending the Army in uniforms into our cities to collect people,” Paul told Newsmax host Rob Schmitt on Tuesday night. “That’s not what we use our military for. We never have, and it’s actually been illegal for over 100 years to bring the Army into our cities.”
Though the Army can technically enter cities, the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from enforcing domestic law, such as quelling civil unrest, unless authorized by Congress or the president under certain circumstances.
“Our Army and our military are trained to shoot the enemy,” Paul continued. “They’re not trained to get a warrant to do what they’re doing.”
The incoming chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs referenced Trump’s acknowledgement of a Truth Social post by Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, who said the president-elect is reportedly “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.” Trump responded, “TRUE!!”
The mass deportations are expected to start on the first day of Trump’s second term, with former acting ICE director Tom Homan serving as the next border czar. Homan has vowed to oversee the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
Paul, who has been critical of Trump’s support for government spending and some of his more hawkish foreign-policy positions, argued that local police or domestic agencies, not the military, should be responsible for deporting illegal immigrants.
The Trump administration should start with the deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes, Paul said. Recent data provided by ICE in September shows that among the approximately 660,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records that the U.S. is harboring, over 13,000 were convicted of homicide and nearly 16,000 were convicted of sexual assault.
The senator said he will work with Trump on restoring the Remain in Mexico policy, which would require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico before their legal request to enter the U.S. can be processed. Trump implemented the policy in January 2019, but President Joe Biden overturned it once he entered office.
Paul, however, does not support an emergency declaration because it leads to martial rule and bypasses Congress. He said the emergency declaration giving the military power to deport illegal immigrants would be a “huge mistake.”
In 2019, Paul opposed Trump’s proposed national-emergency declaration to secure billions in funds for the border wall without congressional approval.
The lawmaker also expressed concern about deporting illegal immigrants who have resided in the U.S. for several years or even decades.
“The housekeeper who’s been here 30 years — I don’t see the military putting her in handcuffs and marching her down the street to an encampment. I don’t really want to see that,” Paul said in the Newsmax interview. Instead, he suggested an “in-between solution” that would expand work permits for those who have lived in the U.S. for a long time while denying them voting rights.
“We, as conservatives who are supportive of Trump, need to caution him about sending the Army into our cities,” Paul concluded. “It’s a terrible image to send the world, and it’s a terrible image for us as citizens.”