Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race against President Joe Biden, said he is open to using the United States military to deport millions of illegal immigrants if he is elected president.
During an interview with Time, Trump was asked if he would use the military to deport illegal immigrants.
“When we talk military, generally speaking, I talk National Guard. I’ve used the National Guard in Minneapolis. And if I didn’t use it, I don’t think you’d have Minneapolis standing right now, because it was really bad. But I think in terms of the National Guard. But if I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military, per se. We have to have safety in our country. We have to have law and order in our country,” Trump said. “And whichever gets us there, but I think the National Guard will do the job.”
Trump said “we have no choice” but to deport millions of illegal immigrants that have entered the United States through Biden’s open border.
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“I don’t believe this is sustainable for a country, what’s happening to us, with probably 15 million and maybe as many as 20 million by the time Biden’s out,” Trump said. “Twenty million people, many of them from jails, many of them from prisons, many of them from mental institutions. I mean, you see what’s going on in Venezuela and other countries. They’re becoming a lot safer.”
Time challenged Trump’s plan to use the military for his deportation operation, arguing the Posse Comitatus Act bars the use of the U.S. military against civilians.
“Well, these aren’t civilians. These are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country. An invasion like probably no country has ever seen before. They’re coming in by the millions. I believe we have 15 million now. And I think you’ll have 20 million by the time this ends. And that’s bigger than almost every state,” Trump asserted.
“I can see myself using the National Guard and, if necessary, I’d have to go a step further. We have to do whatever we have to do to stop the problem we have,” Trump added. “Again, we have a major force that’s forming in our country, when you see that over the last three weeks, 29,000 people came in from China, and they’re all fighting age, and they’re mostly males. Yeah, you have to do what you have to do to stop crime and to stop what’s taking place at the border.”
