Here's More on the Decades-Old Statute the Trump Administration Invoked to Round Up Illegal Aliens

Katie touched upon this yesterday, but the Trump administration is utilizing all tools available to them to rid our country of criminal illegal aliens. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was never going to be alone in this herculean effort to secure our border and get illegal aliens out of our country. Federal agents with ATF, DEA, and the US Marshal Service have been granted deportation powers. So does local law enforcement now:

On Thursday afternoon the Department of Homeland Security moved to deputize local law enforcement, which is set assist with future deportations and illegal alien arrests inside cities across the country.
"Today, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive essential to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportations," DHS released in a statement. "The directive gives Department of Justice (DOJ) law enforcement officials in the U.S. Marshals, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons authority to investigate and apprehend illegal aliens."
The White House is giving details about the move and what the future looks like.
"President Trump is unleashing a vast and broad array of federal statutory authorities to secure the homeland. Authorities Congress has enacted that exist in statute that have never been used before," senior White House advisor Stephen Miller detailed on Fox News Friday afternoon. "The Secretary of Homeland Security has the authority to deputize both federal law enforcement as well as state and local law enforcement and the national guard to conduct immigration enforcement activities."

There’s a catch: first, the statute granting local cops deportation powers is decades old and will likely lead to a lawsuit. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council had a thread about this order, adding, “States will have to sign agreements with DHS first, and those may set some limits.”

🚨NEW! The Trump administration has invoked a decades-old, never-before-invoked, legal authority that permits them to authorize willing state and local enforcement officers to carry out "any of the powers, privileges, or duties" of an immigration officer (ICE or Border Patrol). pic.twitter.com/kxiLPyBePQ
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 24, 2025

This will be subject to legal challenge, especially given the sweeping delegation of authority, which claims a mass influx in all 50 states (including Alaska and Hawaii apparently, which is obviously absurd). But courts may be deferential to executive use of this authority.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 24, 2025

Key things to knows:

- This will lead to litigation. This law is decades old, seems more about border enforcement than internal enforcement, and has never been invoked. So it's a blank slate.
- States will have to sign agreements with DHS first, and those may set some limits.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 24, 2025

We will likely see DeSantis, Abbott, and other GOP governors and local law enforcement agencies accept these powers, which are even more sweeping than 287(g) agreements.

Immigrants living in those states could find themselves even more vulnerable to racial profiling and arrest.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 24, 2025

I don’t care about the racial profiling aspect. It’s time to enforce the law, which Trump is trying to do.