U.S .Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) again spoke out against President-elect Donald Trump‘s plans to potentially use the military to deport millions of illegal migrants in the U.S.
On the CBS morning talk show Face the Nation, Paul said that he’s “all in” for mass deportation — but that using the military to deport immigrants is “illegal” and that the job should be left to local police.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says he supports President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations, but not his suggestion of using the military for it, “because it’s illegal.”
“We’ve had a distrust of putting the army into our streets,” he says, calling for deportations “through… pic.twitter.com/WUms7FSu66
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 24, 2024
Instead of the military, Paul’s vision for the mass deportation features local law enforcement working with ICE and other federal agencies — a plan which would require officials at the state and municipal levels to cooperate and coordinate with executive branch orders.
Some of those local officials, including Mike Johnston, the Mayor of Denver, Colorado, have signaled that they plan to resist marshalling local forces for deportation work.
Paul warned there would be consequences for those like Johnston who refuse to use city police for mass deportation efforts.
Of Johnston’s planned resistance, Paul told Face the Nation: “If he’s going to resist federal law it will go all the way to the Supreme Court and I would suspect that he would be removed from office. I don’t know whether or not there would be a criminal prosecution for someone resisting federal law, but he will lose.” He added: “What he’s offering is a form of insurrection.”
Paul supporters including Chris Rossini, co-host of The Ron Paul Liberty Report, predicably agree with the Senator (“A government-created problem should not be dealt with by granting government illegal powers … especially one like putting military in the streets!”).
But many MAGA supporters in the comments claim “it’s not illegal” to use the military because “it’s an invasion” and suggest that Paul is “not a team player = loser.”
[NOTE: The “invasion” language derives from Trump’s campaign, where he repeatedly said “they’re invading our country.”]
Trump’s border czar nominee, Tom Homan, has said he’s willing to arrest leaders like Mayor Johnston for disobeying federal laws. At present, however, this is largely speculation as there is as yet no firm plan about how the mass deportation Trump promised will be executed.
Speaking of being part of a civil disobedience campaign to prevent military action inside the U.S., Johnston said he’s not afraid of being arrested, although he maintained that’s not what he seeks. The mayor said: “I think the goal is we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people how to solve hard problems.”