Donald Trump confirms he is prepared to declare a national emergency and use military to deport illegal immigrants

Incoming president Donald Trump has confirmed he is ready to declare a national emergency and use the military to deport illegal immigrants from America. 

Responding to a post on Truth Social made by activist Tom Fitton, who said the 'incoming Trump administration [are] prepared to eclare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program', Trump wrote: 'TRUE!!!'

Trump has long promised not only to curb illegal immigration, but to deport those who currently live in the US. 

He said just days after winning the 2024 election that his fight to deport an estimated 11million people would have no 'price tag.'

He told NBC: 'Really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.'

The American Immigration Council estimated that the cost of a mass deportation on the scale that Trump wants could cost $315billion. 

This cost includes impacts of lost labour. 

Despite this, members of Trump's inner circle previously told the Mail on Sunday that he has been formulating a plan to begin mass deportations in Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home. 

One lawyer familiar with the talks said: 'Donald is preparing for a series of moves against illegal immigrants, which he says will cause "shock and awe". Kicking out illegals was the mainstay of his run for the White House and he knows people expect action on Day One. They will get it.'

The source claims Trump will immediately sign a series of executive orders, the most radical of which will be to close the border.

Citing an immigration crisis, he will temporarily shut the southern border to give officials a chance to clear a huge backlog of cases.

Trump claims that the Joe Biden administration allowed more than 10 million people to illegally enter the US, bringing the total number of illegal immigrants to 20 million.

There are plans to significantly increase the number of armed officers on horseback patrolling the rugged terrain close to the US's border with Mexico.

And, of course, construction will resume on the infamous wall running between the two countries, which was a central – if unfulfilled – plank of Trump's immigration policy during his first term.

Having lengthened the wall to around 700 miles (of the near 2,000-mile border), work abruptly stopped when Biden came to power. Trump has vowed to complete the $8 billion job by inviting businesses to 'sponsor' sections.

'Step One' of the deportation programme is to target undocumented immigrants with ties to criminal gangs.

It is dubbed 'Operation Aurora', after the Colorado town where members of the ruthless Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua turned apartment complexes into bases for drug dealing and prostitution.

Trump plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which gives presidents the authority to detain and deport non-citizens from 'hostile nations' during times of war and conflict. The law was used to justify the building of Japanese internment camps during the Second World War.

According to those familiar with Trump's plans, he will target the 700,000 Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans he has branded 'vicious criminals from countries that hate us', who have been allowed to stay in the US under a Biden parole programme. 

'Step Two' is to expel more than one million people whose applications to remain in the US have been denied and who are on the deportation list.

Then the round-up of the millions of remaining illegal immigrants will begin as part of 'Step Three'. Places of work, including farms and meatpacking plants, will be subject to raids (or 'targeted enforcement activities') – something the American Civil Liberties Union calls 'vile, unconstitutional and un-American'.

Individuals will be taken to 'holding centres' before their deportation is fast-tracked.