What will be the role of the US military in Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan?

The Trump administration’s plan to use active-duty U.S. military personnel to assist in the mass deportation of undocumented migrants looks similar to the support the military provided at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018 and 2019 during the first Trump administration.

During his 2024 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump often mentioned military personnel as part of his deportation relief plans, but how they would do so under existing legal powers remained unclear. However, Trump confirmed on Monday that he plans to declare a state of emergency to fulfill his campaign promise.

In addition, Thomas Homan, Trump’s pick for border czar, laid out his perspective on how US military assets would be a “force multiplier” in deportations, but stressed they would perform “non-enforcement duties”. That is, military personnel will not participate in detentions.

“They will be used for non-law enforcement duties, such as transportation, whether it’s ground or air, infrastructure, construction, intelligence,” Homan told Fox Business Network.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers who perform these duties could be replaced by military personnel “because it doesn’t require immigration authorities,” Homan explained.

SEE ALSO: What “border czar” Trump has said he plans to do from day one

He also described the military’s role as a “force multiplier to pick up more agents, put them on the streets where we need them,” and he envisioned the U.S. military possibly helping with flights that would take detainees back to their countries.

“We are hoping that the Department of Defense will help us with air travel because there are a limited number of aircraft that ICE has contracts with; so the Department of Defense can certainly help with air travel around the world,” he said.

Homan’s description was very similar to the previous active duty deployment in 2018 and 2019, during Trump’s first term, which supported US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as caravans of migrants from Central America made their way to the US border.

The mission was ordered in October 2018 and eventually sent 6,100 troops to the border, soon followed by Trump’s declaration of a national emergency that allowed the US military to help build parts of the border wall.

Pentagon officials have emphasized that the thousands of active-duty military personnel deployed to the border will serve only in a support role for federal law enforcement and that they will not perform law enforcement functions. This role was in accordance with the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the US military from performing law enforcement duties within the country.

SEE ALSO: How Democrats plan to fight Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan

The active-duty troops join the 2,350 National Guardsmen already assisting CBP in their home states of California, Texas and Arizona.

Initially, the active-duty military’s mission was to build housing for additional CBP personnel deployed to the region, provide medical support, transport CBP personnel around the border region, and construct 70 miles of additional barriers and security barriers for 22 ports of entry . . Military militia units were deployed to provide security for military construction crews working along the border, and were the only forces authorized to be armed while deployed.

What was supposed to be a 45-day mission continued and continues to this day in a modified form and in much smaller numbers than in 2019.

After the mission’s initial goals were quickly met, the Pentagon approved a new request from the Department of Homeland Security for an unarmed rapid response force to help CPB control unrest in the event of an influx of migrants at the port of entry.

In April 2019, the role of active-duty military personnel was expanded to allow them to assist in the operation of CBP’s high-capacity migrant transport vehicles; provide administrative support, including providing heating, food distribution, and monitoring the welfare of individuals in CBP custody; and ICE advocacy support.

A month later, the Pentagon approved a DHS request to provide tents for 7,500 unaccompanied migrant adults at six locations along the border. The tents were supposed to come from US military supplies and were installed by US military personnel. . DHS subsequently asked military personnel to install an additional 150 miles of wire along the border area beyond the 70 miles of barriers that had been installed during the first six weeks of the border support mission.

Trump’s announcement that he plans to declare a national emergency to ensure mass deportations is a different rationale than what he announced in 2019.

6,100 active-duty servicemen were deployed to the border within the framework of the existing authorities. Instead, the state of emergency that Trump declared in early 2019 was supposed to allow the US military to help build part of the border wall, which was one of his main campaign promises.

The National Emergency Act allows the military to undertake new military construction projects not specified by Congress, but only if previously appropriated funds are used for such projects.

In the end, the Pentagon was able to use $6.1 billion to fund the wall, including $3.6 billion in funds reallocated from other projects and an additional $2.5 billion in funding for counter-narcotics efforts.

Declaring a state of national emergency is not uncommon, and the National Emergency Act has been invoked on a number of occasions. At the time the border was announced, there were about 30 states of emergency already in place by previous administrations.