Washington, D.C. (June 26, 2025) – This week’s episode of the Parsing Immigration Policy podcast delves into the Insurrection Act, its historical uses, and whether it could legally authorize the use of the military to assist in the removal of illegal aliens.
The Insurrection Act allows presidents to deploy federal troops when enforcement of U.S. laws is obstructed or when states fail or refuse to protect constitutional rights. The Posse Comitatus Act is not the obstacle many assume it is.
“The Insurrection Act has been invoked by leaders of both parties to protect civil rights and to enforce federal law. President Trump would have ample justification to use the Insurrection Act to allow the U.S. military to assist with large-scale deportation efforts,” said guest George Fishman, Senior Legal Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and former Deputy General Counsel at DHS”
Historical precedent:
Over the past more than 200 years, presidents have relied on the Insurrection Act to deal with 30 crises.
Presidents of both parties have relied on the Insurrection Act: Grant to suppress the early KKK, Cleveland to protect Chinese immigrants, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson to enforce civil rights for African Americans, Bush to restore order during the 1992 LA riots.
Misconceptions about the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA):
The PCA does not apply where Congress has explicitly authorized military use — such as under the Insurrection Act.
Immigration enforcement today:
The president is unable with regular forces to implement laws of the US.
- More than 15 million illegal aliens are in the U.S.
- 3.6 million backlog in immigration court
- 1.4 million aliens have final removal orders, yet remain at large.
- Millions of removable aliens were released by the Biden administration, and ICE has no knowledge of their location
- ICE has only 6,000 officers to manage enforcement nationwide.
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