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Illinois officials brace for fight as Trump vows to use military for deportation plan
President-elect Donald Trump said he intends to deploy military personnel to enact his mass deportation plan—something that legal scholars and several Illinois officials say he can't legally do.
CHICAGO - President-elect Donald Trump confirmed on his social media site that he intends to deploy military personnel to enact his mass deportation plan—something that legal scholars and several Illinois officials say he can't legally do.
"True!" Trump posted in response to a Truth Social message claiming he will declare a national emergency and use military assets to deport undocumented immigrants. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said it’s a chilling prospect.
"The idea of calling out the army into the domestic confines of the United States seems uncalled for and may in fact be unconstitutional and illegal," the governor said at an unrelated event in Joliet on Monday.
ACLU of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka agreed and said the deployment of military personnel onto the streets of the U.S. would erode trust in the world’s most lethal fighting force. He called Trump's plan "a really terrible idea."
"It is designed for war against an armed enemy, it is not designed for the purposes of marching through the streets of Chicago or a suburb in order to round up civilians," Yohnka said.
But is it legal to deploy the military? Illinois' top law enforcement official – Attorney General Kwame Raoul – says the law is fuzzy.
"It would depend on what theory their using those assets for, like if there's a national security concern or so forth," Raoul said.
Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois all have sanctuary laws on the books—meaning local law enforcement cannot assist federal immigration officials in raids—but incoming border security czar Tom Homan said Pritzker won’t stop the new administration’s efforts.
"Game on. I got no problem going through him," Homan told Trump activist Charlie Kirk last week. "27,000 men and women with ICE are going to do their job with no apology."
Pritzker said the incoming president will have to move forward with his plans without the National Guard as well.
"He does not have the ability to call out the National Guard inside the confines of the United States, the governors do," Pritzker said.
It’s unclear how the mass deportation plan would work—it is said to cost potentially tens of billions of dollars. Homan has said Homeland Security will start by targeting those with criminal records.
Raoul says immigration officials will already be able to target those individuals without violating state law.
"Certainly, I think the Trump administration indicated they want to put more resources into that enforcement with the prioritization of those who have committed criminal acts. That's within their authority to do," Raoul said.