DHS confirms Trump plan to use military as police, declare martial law

With the usual amount of deception we’ve come to expect from the Donald Trump administration, a recently leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo confirms my warnings of his plan to use the immigration issue as an excuse to use the military as a domestic police force and eventually declare martial law.

Trump’s use of the military as a domestic police force is about to go into overdrive (via NewRepublic.com):

An internal memo circulated inside the Department of Homeland Security suggests that Trump’s use of the military for domestic law enforcement on immigration could soon get worse. The memo—obtained by The New Republic—provides a glimpse into the thinking of top officials as they seek to involve the Defense Department more deeply in these domestic operations, and it has unnerved experts who believe it portends a frightening escalation.

The memo lays out the need to persuade top Pentagon officials to get much more serious about using the military to combat illegal immigration—and not just at the border. It suggests that DHS is anticipating many more uses of the military in urban centers, noting that L.A.-style operations may be needed “for years to come.” And it likens the threat posed by transnational gangs and cartels to having “Al Qaeda or ISIS cells and fighters operating freely inside America,” hinting at a ramped-up militarized posture inside the interior.

“The memo is alarming, because it speaks to the intent to use the military within the United States at a level not seen since Japanese internment,” Carrie Lee, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told me. “The military is the most powerful, coercive tool our country has. We don’t want the military doing law enforcement. It absolutely undermines the rule of law.”

The memo was authored by Philip Hegseth—the younger brother of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—who is a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DHS liaison officer to the Defense Department. As such, it also sheds light on Hegseth the Younger’s role, which has been the subject of media speculation labeling him an obscure but influential figure in his brother’s MAGA orbit. (Emphasis mine)

As I have previously documented, Trump took using the military as police to Hitleresque levels as a precursor to martial law when he assigned the military to secure the border ahead of making a decision on whether or not to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 — a federal law that empowers the president to deploy the U.S. military and National Guard to suppress insurrections or domestic violence.

Trump’s plan to use the military as police and declare martial law began with an Inauguration Day executive order declaring a national emergency on the southern border — an order requiring Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to provide a joint report updating conditions at the border along with their recommendations on whether the invocation of the Insurrection Act might be necessary.

“Within 90 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”

Though Hegseth and Noem pretended to oppose the idea when their 90 days was up, Trump went ahead and acted like the Insurrection Act would be invoked when he sent out a memo announcing his plan to give the military control of “federal land” along the border — an obvious slight-of-hand because the “federal land” mentioned was a 60-foot-wide strip of land known as the Roosevelt Reservation which exists on the America side of the border in California, Arizona, and Texas. In other words, Trump declared this this strip of land a military base. (via defenseone.com):

By creating a military buffer zone that stretches across the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, California and New Mexico, it means any migrant crossing into the United States would be trespassing on a military base, therefore allowing active-duty troops to hold them until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrive.

National and military experts have raised concerns that giving control over the land to the military could violate the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that generally prohibits the military from being used in domestic law enforcement.

The Friday memo instructs its “phased” implementation within 45 days and says it could be expanded over time. The memo is directed at the secretaries of the departments of Defense, Interior, Agriculture and Homeland Security. (Emphasis mine)

It was, of course, expanded months later when Trump deployed the National Guard to LA to allegedly “protect” Immigration Control Enforcement (ICE) officers from protestors who disagreed with his immigration policies (via LATimes.com):

It took less than 24 hours of isolated protests in Los Angeles County for Trump, more aggressive than ever in his use of executive power, to issue a historic order. “The federal government will step in and solve the problem,” he said on social media…, issuing executive action not seen since civil unrest gripped the nation in the 1960s.

It was the latest expression of a president unleashed from conventional parameters on his power, unconcerned with states’ rights or the proportionality of his actions. And the targeting of a Democratic city in a Democratic state was, according to the vice president, an intentional ploy to make a political lesson out of Los Angeles.

The pace of the escalation, and the federal government’s unwillingness to defer to cooperative local law enforcement authorities, raise questions about the administration’s intentions as it responds to protesters. (Emphasis mine)

In his memo deploying the National Guard, Trump also threatened to have the Pentagon deploy active-duty military to Los Angeles when he wrote that “the Secretary of Defense may employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion.” A mere 48 hours later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did his master’s bidding when he mobilized nearly 1000 marines to LA to “support” the National Guard with their police actions.

But yet the cult still cheers. In what can now be called an incredibly ironic moment, “Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association” founder Richard Mack appeared as a guest on The Shannon Joy Show and was asked to respond to my warnings about how Trump was using immigration as an excuse to imply the military as police and ultimately declare martial law. Sheriff Mack — who has established himself as a Bonafide Trumpist — defended Trump’s border plan mentioned above and called my conclusions “wrong” and mere “assumptions” because Trump was prohibited by the Constitution from using the military within US borders.

Hey, Sheriff Mack! Is LA within US Borders? Asking for a friend.

Despite the talking points of people like Sheriff Mack and the rest of the echo chamber, Trump’s actions prove conclusively that he has EVERY intention of using the military as a national police force WITHIN our borders and to eventually declare, in some form or fashion, martial law.

Martial law will result in the suspension of the Constitution, allow military commanders to replace civilian authorities (local police), and replace the judiciary with military tribunals.

Trump is already using immigration and border security to introduce a mandatory national biometric digital ID capable of giving government the ability to track anyone at any time for any reason, so his plan to use the military as a domestic police force and eventually declare martial law are simply more pieces to his tyrannical puzzle.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative and the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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