Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Democratic attorneys general are preparing a raft of legal actions to prevent Donald Trump from carrying out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, setting the stage for a series of showdowns over one of his central campaign pledges.<\/p>\n
In interviews with POLITICO, six leading blue-state prosecutors said they are girding to take Trump to court over misusing military troops on domestic soil, attempting to commandeer local or state law enforcement to do the job of the federal government and denying people\u2019s constitutional right to due process.<\/p>\n
The attorneys general also said they would move to challenge Trump if he tries to federalize the National Guard \u2014 or attempts to direct active-duty military units or National Guard troops from red states into blue states. They are bracing to push back against his administration sending immigration agents into schools and hospitals to target vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n
And they are preparing to fight Trump over withholding federal funding from local law enforcement agencies in an attempt to induce them into carrying out deportations, as he did unsuccessfully in his first term.<\/p>\n
The attorneys\u2019 preparations underscore the depth of concern among blue-state leaders about Trump\u2019s deportation plans and foreshadow the major role state prosecutors will continue to play in shaping the country\u2019s immigration policy. Following a rash of red-state challenges to President Joe Biden\u2019s immigration agenda over the last four years, it\u2019s now blue-state attorneys who are positioned to set off another round of legal clashes \u2014 this time intended to stymie Trump on his signature issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are ways to [handle immigration] that are in line with American values and conform to American law. But they don\u2019t seem to be interested in pursuing that,\u201d New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez, a former federal prosecutor who has experience in immigration enforcement, said of Trump and his allies. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where someone like me has an important role to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some have dismissed Trump\u2019s pledge to carry out the largest deportation in American history as infeasible, Democratic attorneys general are taking the incoming president at his word. They are preparing briefs and analyses and even identifying courts in which to file their lawsuits as they brace for him to begin rounding up undocumented immigrants, who number some 11 million, en masse.<\/p>\n
It is setting up a legal chess match between a president-elect looking for new ways to press the limits of executive power and a cadre of state prosecutors already familiar with his playbook and adapting to changes in his approach. And it is unfolding amid broader shifts in the politics of border security.<\/p>\n
The incoming president\u2019s policy team is already thinking about how to craft executive actions aimed to withstand the legal challenges from groups and state prosecutors \u2014 all in hopes of avoiding an early defeat like the one that shuttered his 2017 travel ban targeting majority-Muslim nations.<\/p>\n
But each step Trump takes during his transition \u2014 stacking his Cabinet with immigration hardliners who have pledged to carry out his calls for large-scale deportations, and confirming he intends to both declare a national emergency and use the military in some form to aid his plans \u2014 gives Democrats more clues about how to attempt to block his efforts once he takes office.<\/p>\n
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expedite the removal of immigrant gang members. He is expected to end parole<\/a> for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and deactivate a mobile phone application called CBP One that migrants could use to set up appointments to seek asylum.<\/p>\n His border-czar-in-waiting, former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan, has vowed to ramp up workplace raids<\/a>. His incoming deputy chief of policy, Stephen Miller, has spoken of deputizing the National Guard<\/a> as immigration enforcement officers and even sending troops across state lines to circumvent any resistance efforts. While federal law largely prohibits using military forces for domestic law enforcement, Miller last year identified a workaround<\/a> \u2014 the clause in the so-called Insurrection Act that gives the president power to deploy the military on domestic soil in times of turmoil.<\/p>\n And on Monday, Trump confirmed in a social media post that he intends to declare a national emergency and marshal military assets to help execute deportations.<\/p>\n