Don’t Drag the U.S. Military Into a Domestic Deportation Machine
Donald Trump has never seen much of a line between the military’s true purpose—defending the United States and our allies in wartime—and using it as an extension of domestic law enforcement. That’s a dangerous instinct, and one that’s only become more pronounced as he eyes a second term. Nowhere is that more evident than in recent discussions about using the U.S. military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Whether or not the logistics can be made to work, the very premise of a mass deportation campaign is wrong—and dragging the U.S. military into it only makes a bad idea worse. The sight of troops enforcing immigration raids on American soil, detaining families, and escorting them into holding facilities is not just unsettling—it’s fundamentally un-American. It represents the kind of domestic military deployment we’ve long condemned in other nations, and it has no place in ours.
Reports indicate that the Trump team is already planning to repurpose military bases in over a dozen states as detention sites for immigrants, beginning with Fort Bliss in Texas. On the surface, that may seem like a logistical move—ICE simply doesn’t have the capacity to carry out a deportation campaign of this scale on its own. But using military installations for this purpose carries profound risks, not only to our military’s readiness and morale, but also to the ethical boundaries that are supposed to govern its conduct.
Military resources are not infinite. Every task handed to our servicemembers that falls outside their core mission—especially one as politicized and contentious as this—distracts from their primary duty: to fight and win wars in defense of the country. And the facilities being considered aren’t built to house civilian detainees, especially families or children. History tells us that when military installations are used for this kind of detention, the results are often substandard, unsafe, and inhumane.
But the deeper concern is what this kind of operation would mean for the long-term health of our democracy. Once we begin using the military to enforce domestic policy—especially in a law enforcement role—we risk crossing a line that should never be crossed. We drag our military into the heart of a bitter partisan battle, undermining its public trust and threatening the civil-military balance that has held firm throughout American history.
Yes, previous administrations have used military planes to repatriate deportees and, in limited cases, have temporarily housed migrants on bases. But what’s being proposed now is different in kind, not just in degree. This isn’t a short-term response to a crisis. It’s a sweeping, systemic retooling of our military’s infrastructure and personnel to serve a domestic political agenda. That is not what the U.S. military is for. And once that precedent is set, it will be incredibly hard to roll back.
America doesn’t need troops patrolling our neighborhoods or guarding detention centers on U.S. soil. We’ve seen where that road leads in other countries—and it’s not to freedom or justice. We cannot allow ourselves to go down that path.
Robert Edwards is a U.S. Army Veteran. He lives in New York.
