Rand Paul breaks with Trump on using military for mass deportations: ‘Huge mistake’

GOP Sen. Rand Paul denounced President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deploy the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants upon his return to office, saying it would be a “huge mistake” and a misuse of military personnel.

“I’m not in favor of sending the Army in uniforms into our cities to collect people,” Paul (R-Ky.) told Newsmax host Rob Schmitt on Tuesday. “I think it’s a terrible image and that’s not what we use our military for, we never have and it’s actually been illegal for over 100 years to bring the Army into our cities.”

Paul emphasized in the interview that he believes the task of removing people from the country should fall to local police or domestic agencies, but not the military.

“I will not support an emergency [declaration] to put the Army into our cities — I think that’s a huge mistake,” he said, later adding, “I really think us as conservatives who are supportive of Trump need to caution him about sending the Army into our cities.”

Trump has vowed to begin deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants from the country on Day 1 of his new administration, nominating former acting ICE Director Thomas Homan as his “border czar” for the task.

As the incoming chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Paul has said he’ll seek to restore Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, which would require asylum seekers to the U.S. to wait in Mexico for their legal request to be processed. He has an inconsistent record with supporting Trump, endorsing him for president in 2020 but not this year. In 2019, Paul voted against Trump’s proposed national emergency declaration to secure funds for his border wall.

The senator also expressed concern for how it would look like for “the housekeeper who’s been here 30 years” to get arrested by a uniformed service member.

“I don’t see the military putting her in handcuffs and marching her down the street to an encampment. I don’t really want to see that,” Paul said, proposing “an in-between solution” that would expand work permits for those who have been in the U.S. for a long time.