Even before Inauguration Day, President Trump threatened to use the military here at home to carry out his anti-immigrant, anti-American agenda. Four months into his administration, and that’s exactly what’s unfolding.
Just last week, he gave the military authority to use public civilian lands along the border for “military activities” – affecting residents in cities like San Diego and El Paso. He’s adding more armed troops to already over-militarized communities without adequate training, guardrails, or concern for the 19 million people already living there. This is a recipe for disaster.
Using the military in service of a partisan political agenda could present us with a scene right out of a nightmare: One in which tanks roll down our streets and military troops police our communities at the president’s bidding.
This Sunday is supposed to be the deadline for Secretaries Hegseth and Noem to recommend whether the president should invoke the Insurrection Act. We don’t know if they’ll even make this report public, but we’ll be clear: Sending active-duty troops into our communities over a manufactured emergency would put lives in danger and place our troops in legal and ethical jeopardy. And regardless of whether President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, his repeated threats to use the military on American soil should set off alarm bells for all of us.
We’re calling on Congress to protect civilians in border states from Trump’s attempts to assert military control over their daily lives.
We’re putting everything we have into protecting all of our rights – and with the support of the ACLU community, we’re ready for whatever the Trump administration has in store.
Thanks for being in this fight with us,
Hina Shamsi
Pronouns: She, her, hers
Director, ACLU National Security Project
ACLU of Washington
P.O. Box 2728
Seattle, WA 98111-2728