President-Elect Donald Trump has roiled the political waters with his controversial Cabinet picks, but now he’s pivoted his attention away from that to do something that’s more controversial: He’s ginning up his deportation plan, announcing early Monday that he will declare a national emergency and use “military assets” as part of his mass deportation program.
According to Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who was named last week as White House Press Secretary, Trump announced on the day after the election that he would deport “millions” beginning on day one, according to The New Civil Rights Movement.
“The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, and it gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made,” Leavitt said. “Which include, on Day 1, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed into this country.”
This “mass deportation operation” would also include “millions of undocumented immigrants,” she added.
We already know Trump is an unrepentant racist who has called immigrants “animals,” “monsters,” and “murderers,” and claimed they are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He’s blamed immigrants for a “surge in crime,” even though that’s completely untrue, and also claimed “it’s in their genes.” And then there’s his stupid nonsensical claim that they’re “eating the pets.”
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Incredible. Just incredible to me that this man was elected president. What are the next four years going to be like for immigrants with this cruel b@stard on the job?
Trump is, after all, the creep who “complained about ‘having all these people from shithole come here’ — and singled out Haiti, El Salvador and Africa as examples — he also added that, ‘we should have more people from Norway’,” according to NPR.
Shortly after 4 AM ET on Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social a statement from right-wing racist activist Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch. He’s also a senior member of the Council for National Policy, a secretive organization that has been called the “scariest Christian nationalist group you’ve never heard of” and “probably the most dangerous” by Americans United.
On November 8, Fitton crowed: “GOOD NEWS: Reports are the incoming @RealDonaldTrump administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”
And Trump crowed right back: “TRUE!!!”
The reports are true
Donald Trump confirms he will declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military to carry out mass deportations pic.twitter.com/qCesnLHPOw
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) November 18, 2024
Attorney and immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick urged “caution” on Monday:
“I want to again emphasize caution here. Fitton mashed together two different things (the border and mass deportations). There is no National Emergency Act authority to use the military for deportations, while we know Trump used the [NEA] in the past for border wall construction.”
I want to again emphasize caution here. Fitton mashed together two different things (the border and mass deportations). There is no National Emergency Act authority to use the military for deportations, while we know Trump used the NAE in the past for border wall construction. https://t.co/MXVKiGdNip
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) November 18, 2024
Leavitt’s nonsense about Trump being given a mandate is just that: Nonsense. His claim has been deemed false by political experts, with one pundit asserting it’s a “lie.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Trump, and those like Leavitt who are in his orbit, either lie with impunity, spread misinformation whenever possible, and even in the few instances where they are not lying, rarely get their facts straight.
So my heart breaks for documented and undocumented immigrants in this country. They are going to be subjected to a lot of racist cruelty. But on the bright side, Americans who think they are “too good” to do the jobs that immigrants are forced to do will now have to start doing these jobs themselves. They will have to. Because if the crops aren’t picked, the grocery shelves aren’t stocked, and rich people’s lawns aren’t mowed, the U.S. will grind to a standstill.
It will be a tough, but necessary lesson for some people who will perhaps come to appreciate the jobs immigrants do for us.
Maybe.
Photo via Political Tribune Gallery
