President-elect Donald Trump is confirming his intention to declare a national emergency as pretext for using the military in his plans to round up and deport more than 10 million people currently residing in the U.S.

Trump’s intention was first proclaimed in response to “good news” shared by Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, who said that the President-elect is “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”

Trump, in resharing Fitton’s assertion, said simply “TRUE!”

This would be in line with Trump’s stated day-one plan of beginning widespread deportation of immigrants and undocumented people. The former president has frequently promised to begin the “largest mass deportation event” in the nation’s history, suggesting there are upwards of 20 million people residing in the U.S. without lawful presence.

This plan became a major campaign talking point — there were “mass deportation” signs all over the RNC this summer — with Trump and his surrogates often pointing to an apparent increase in border crossings since the 45th President left White House.

Tom Homan, a tough-talking former ICE head, has been named Trump’s so-called border czar.

Homan has repeatedly said he has the know-how to deport anyone living in the country without legal documentation and has brushed off concerns about separating families, including those of mixed immigration status.

While Trump’s plan will likely face legal challenges before its implementation, some immigration advocates are warning that his intentions are darker than they seem.

“Trump continues promoting anti-immigration hate and is using it as an excuse to appropriate the military for domestic law enforcement and circumvent normal checks and balances on presidential power,” Vanessa Cárdenas, Senior Director of Communication for America’s Voice, said in a statement.

According to Cárdenas, Trump is attempting to invent an “invasion” by hostile forces where none exists so that he can circumvent federal laws which would normally prevent him from using the military in domestic law enforcement efforts, pushing a false narrative that “America is under assault, and it must be repelled by force.”

“Yet just because Trump and allies have spent recent years normalizing this idea and making this assertion doesn’t make it any less radical. Let’s be clear, this is the adoption of a white nationalist conspiracy theory, already linked to multiple deadly acts of gun violence against civilians, which is driving federal policy and Republican agendas,” Cárdenas said.

This would not be the first time Trump has used the powers of the presidency to declare an emergency with regards to immigration. In 2019, the former president declared that an emergency existed along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump’s proclamation at the time cited an increase in family crossings at the border as the impetus for the emergency, while his spoken announcement declared the order necessary to take on drugs and violence. Trump’s plan was met with lawsuits by the ACLU and other immigration groups. The national emergency was ended when President Joe Biden took office in 2021.

Returning to a state of supposed emergency due to undocumented migrants, according to Cárdenas, will spill over to impact immigrants who are in the country legally.

“Despite the martial language and emphasis on the border and recent arrivals, make no mistake that the Trump team is planning to target long-settled immigrants and mixed-status families as part of their mass deportations. Having legal status and even citizenship is not necessarily a shield of protection,” she said.

It won’t just be the criminals migrants or legal immigrants that Trump’s emergency rounds up, the immigration advocate claims. There will be actual American citizens who get caught up in the administration’s deportation plans, and according to Cárdenas that’s been the plan all along.

“Their pledges to end immigration enforcement priorities, while making as many people as possible deportable, is a disturbing tell that their definition of ‘criminal’ will look fundamentally different from most Americans’ conceptions. Perhaps most disturbingly, the resulting fear and cruelty that will be on display is likely a feature and not a bug to those in charge,” she said.

Trump’s proposal to use the military to handle the nation’s immigration problem comes as some states leaders are lining up to opposes his plans.

In Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has noted Trump “has told us exactly what he intends to do as President, and that we need to believe him and to be ready for the challenges ahead,” while Gov. Maura Healey has said the Massachusetts State Police will play no part in federal deportation efforts.

— Material from Herald wire services was used in this report

President-elect Donald Trump says that Tom Homan, his former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)