How Donald Trump could deploy a private deportation army to invade Arizona

It’s difficult for most of us to imagine a nightmare scenario in which platoons of National Guard troops from states with cooperative Republican governors march through neighborhoods in Phoenix, Glendale, Mesa, Flagstaff and Tucson conducting fascistic immigration sweeps.

But it’s easy for Stephen Miller, who was Donald Trump’s senior adviser on immigration.

Miller described such draconian scenarios in an interview with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

Those plans and what they would look like if Trump was elected are described in an article by Ronald Brownstein of The Atlantic.

In the article, Brownstein quotes David Leopold, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, saying, “What he’s describing is a terrifying police state, the pretext of which is immigration.”

Arizona has lived through a version of that.

Arizona senator wanted 'Operation Wetback'

Back in 2006, then-Arizona Rep. Russell Pearce told a Phoenix radio host, “We know what we need to do. In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower put together a task force called ‘Operation Wetback.’ He removed, in less than a year, 1.3 million illegal aliens. They must be deported.”

I contacted Pearce after the show and met with him in his office at the state Capitol.

“My critics don’t like history,” Pearce told me. “They want to rewrite history. I didn’t use the term (wetback). I quoted a successful program. The far left always tells you, ‘Russell, you can’t deport 12 million people.’ I say, ‘Yes, you can, if you have the will.’ ”

Border Patrol keeps growing: Yet immigration remains broken

Pearce referred to his critics as “sissies,” adding, “People are tired of that. They’re tired of the games. (Politicians) don’t even know their own constituents … .”

Russell Pearce’s influence in the Legislature eventually lead to the passage of Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, a specious piece of legislation that inspired a series of immigration sweeps in Latino communities, generating lawsuits that have cost Maricopa County taxpayers $250 million.

So far.

The cost in human misery cannot be calculated.

Trump also wants to deport millions

Trump has promised that he will conduct the most massive immigration sweeps ever. He said, “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

The number of personnel needed to find the migrants Trump would deport, detain them in internment camps, process them and eventually fly them or bus them out of the country is astronomical, as is the price.

Brownstein quotes Miller suggesting that Trump could requisition National Guard troops from Republican-controlled states and deploy them into states whose Democratic governors refuse to cooperate. Like, for instance, Arizona.

Would those troops be met at the border by Arizona law enforcement or members of Arizona’s National Guard? Then what?

Miller said the goal would be to deport 10 million people, whom he called “foreign-national invaders.”

The formula is fairly straightforward: Dehumanize whole populations. Stage military raids on select neighborhoods. Round up “undesirables.” Build internment camps.

Gee, where have we heard that before?

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump could deploy a private deportation army to invade Arizona