President Donald Trump is planning on using the Insurrection Act to remove illegal immigrants from the United States, The Daily Caller has learned.
According to multiple senior administration officials, the president intends to invoke the “tremendous powers” of the act to remove illegal immigrants from the country.
“We’re doing the Insurrection Act,” one official said.
Under the Insurrection Act of 1807, the president has the authority to use the National Guard and military in order to combat “unlawful obstruction or rebellion” within U.S. borders. The act was last invoked in 1992 by George H.W. Bush to quell the Los Angeles riots, and was also used by Eisenhower in 1957 to enforce school desegregation in the south.
An official expressed concerns that Trump’s use of the act’s powers would face legal challenges, pointing to the lawsuits against the president’s travel ban from majority-Muslim countries. However, as the official noted, the travel ban ultimately prevailed in the Supreme Court.
In addition to the Insurrection Act, the president is also considering declaring the country full and insisting that the U.S. can no longer handle the massive influx of illegal immigrants. 2019 is currently on pace to reach the highest levels of illegal immigration in a decade.
“If you take a ship and it holds 1,000 people maximum — one more person and the ship is going to collapse,” the official explained. “The country is full.”
“Our hospitals are full, our detention centers are full,” they added.
ICE facilities were forced to release 100,000 illegal immigrants in the first three months of 2019 because of overcrowding in detention centers. (RELATED: Overwhelmed ICE Facilities Forced To Release Illegals)
Separately, the president unveiled a new immigration plan Thursday that focuses on border security and merit-based legal immigration. The plan, which was co-authored by top aides Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller, would increase the proportion of visas granted to highly-skilled immigrants and also establish a self-sustaining border security fund.
