Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said on Sunday that while he supports the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, he does not support President-elect Donald Trump's plan to use the U.S. military to expel migrants "because it's illegal."
Trump heavily campaigned on the issue of immigration in this year's election cycle, which has been a central focus of his platform since stepping onto the political stage in 2016. He promised to carry out the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants on the campaign trail and on Monday, he confirmed that his incoming administration is prepared to declare a national emergency to carry out his mass deportation plan and will use the U.S. military in some form to help.
Appearing on CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday morning, Paul, a ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, told Margaret Brennan, "I'm a 100 percent supportive of going after the 15,000 murders, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapists—all of these people. Let's send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison...but you don't do it with the army because it's illegal and we've had a distrust of putting the army into our streets."
Paul was referring to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report released in September on noncitizens who have been convicted or charged with a crime. The senator seemed to mix up the numbers as ICE reports 13,099 noncitizens convicted of murder and 15,811 convicted of sexual assault. Also, these numbers span decades, including people who entered the country over the past 40 years or more.
"The police understand the Fourth Amendment. They have to go to judges. They have to get warrants; it has to be specific. I'm for removing these people, but I would do it through the normal process of domestic policing," Paul told Brennan.
Newsweek reached out to Paul's office and Trump's team via email for comment Sunday afternoon.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says he supports President-elect Donald Trump's plan for mass deportations, but not his suggestion of using the military for it, "because it's illegal."
"We've had a distrust of putting the army into our streets," he says, calling for deportations "through… pic.twitter.com/WUms7FSu66
Brennan mentioned how taxing a mass deportation plan would be on immigration authorities, saying, "There are just 6,000 agents, 41,000 detention beds to carry out the assignment of rounding up millions of undocumented people, potentially."
She then asked Paul, "How do you suggest they implement it?"
"I will not support and will not vote to use the military in our cities. I think it's a terrible image," Paul said, using the same language as in an interview with Newsmax he did earlier this week.
Paul said he would use the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), ICE and Border Patrol to carry out the deportations.
"It's not about detaining [the migrants]. In all likelihood, they should be going to a jail, either a jail here or in the country they came from," he added.
The senator also said he doesn't think deputizing the U.S. National Guard to carry out the deportations is "the best way to do it."
"It's less clear whether that's legal or illegal. Typically it has to be done at the behest of the governors. I still don't like a militarization of police, whether it's National Guard or Army," he said.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who also sits on the Homeland Security Committee, said Trump using the military to carry out mass deportations would be against the Insurrection Act, which allows presidents to use troops on American soil to restore order when they decide it's warranted.
"We're pursuing whatever we can do to make clear that the Insurrection Act should not permit that use of the military," Blumenthal told The New York Times in an article published Monday.
Under the Insurrection Act, "if there is no threat to public order of a fundamental, far-reaching kind, it would be illegal," the senator said.
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