BUT IS THERE A DOUBLE STANDARD?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Feb. 23, 2017) — On Thursday, while meeting with a group of corporate leaders about job-creation, President Donald Trump made remarks about the removal of criminal illegal aliens under new guidance issued by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly on Monday.
In the course of his comments, Trump described the removal process of “bad dudes” as “a military operation,” which mainstream media outlets then widely reported.
“It’s a military operation because what has been allowed to come into our country, you see gang violence…much of that is people who are here illegally…” Trump said.
On February 13, DHS reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had arrested and detained approximately 680 known criminal illegal aliens in major metropolitan areas.
As Trump noted, Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were in Mexico on Wednesday and Thursday meeting with that nation’s president and counterparts to discuss a range of issues, particularly the expected deportees from the U.S.
Last Friday, the Associated Press reported on a “draft memo” which allegedly called for the use of National Guard troops to remove illegal aliens, particularly in the West, Midwest, and portions of the South. After publication, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called the report “100% false,” and two DHS spokesmen told The Post & Email that while a document containing the suggestion existed, the idea was never seriously considered.
Deployment of the U.S. Army on U.S. soil is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878 during the Reconstruction period. In 1956, the Air Force was also forbidden to deploy within country by congressional amendment to the original law.
During the 1980s, the Navy and Marines were included in proscribed activity on U.S. soil, and an exception was implemented by Congress to allow for the Army to provide training to local law enforcement agencies to apprehend narcotics traffickers.
On March 10, 2010, a unit of U.S. Army soldiers from Ft. Rucker was dispatched to handle a shooting in Samson, AL which was later deemed to be a violation of the Act.
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the “willful use of any part of the Army or Air Force to execute the law” is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
A violation of Posse Comitatus is a felony. However, the mainstream press was virtually silent on the matter, even after the Army Inspector General determined that the law had been violated.
A Reuters story dated March 12, 2010 did not mention that the Army deployed a unit to act as law enforcers after the incident but said, “Mass shootings have become more frequent in recent years in the United States, where guns are widely available for purchase and the right to own weapons for self defense and hunting is defended by many.” Whether or not the perpetrator, Michael McClendon, legally owned the guns with which he was armed to brutally kill ten people, including an 18-month-old girl, was not reported.
The general with oversight of Ft. Rucker at the time, Martin Dempsey, was later promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by then-White House occupant Barack Hussein Obama, a position considered to be “the president’s top military adviser.”
Following the events in Samson, LCDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) filed a formal complaint of treason against Obama, after which he was ridiculed, marginalized, smeared, and stalked by Obama sycophants irrespective of the violation of the law.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, who was William C. Killian at the time, never provided a response to the complaint, which Fitzpatrick maintains remains “undisturbed” to this day.
On Thursday afternoon, The Post & Email sought clarification as to whether or not U.S. troops will be used to remove illegal aliens as the directives in Kelly’s memoranda are carried out.
Our inquiry to DHS reads:
Hello, at a meeting with a group of business leaders this morning, Pres. Trump made a statement describing the apprehension of criminal illegal aliens as “a military operation.” Are there US troops of any kind assisting in the removal of illegal aliens that you know of?
Thank you very much.
Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com
DHS responded to our inquiry with, “None. I’d refer you to the remarks that Secretary Kelly made on this issue just this afternoon in Mexico.”
Kelly’s remarks made on Thursday and Trump’s at the White House appear to contradict each other unless Trump was speaking metaphorically. “There will be no use of military forces in immigration. “There will be no — repeat, no — mass deportation,” Kelly was quoted as having said.
Spicer was quoted by Politico as having clarified at the daily press briefing that “Trump was using the word ‘military’ as an adjective to refer to the precision with which the deportations are taking place, not the use of the military.”
The use of the term “military” was as an ADJECTIVE pure and simple, referring to an operation that was being conducted in a professional manner. Maybe he should have said “military type operation” … would that have made any difference? I doubt it. The media “strains at a gnat and swallows a camel”.
People seem to have trouble understanding our laws. The President has a duty to protect our borders. The military should be stationed along the southern border to keep out the alien invaders. That’s what the military is actually for! Posse Comitatus is for American citizens and keeps the military out of Waco and Ruby Ridge and Bundy Ranch conflicts. These situations are for local law enforcement. It has nothing to do with foreign invaders.
I see no problem with military roundup of foreign invaders, as they are responsible for them being in the country in the first place. They should certainly be used to correct the problem they were supposed to prevent. Once again the President’s instincts are right on target.
For at least and especially for the past 8 years have our leaders been enforcing and protecting
our borders and enforcing illegal immigration into our country? Just try to slip into either
Canada or Mexico as an illegal alien and see if you head doesn’t spin and then you find
yourself arrested and dealt with…
Perhaps Trump is attempting to do as he stated he would do, defend our borders and protect
American Citizens. Isn’t he using action instead of talk and lies…?
Indeed, I sense that Trump did speak metaphorically. That said, police operations are at times
named like military operations and operate as such.
Law breakers and criminals only understand and respect force and power. Trump is the new
sheriff in town.
Should we re-think Posse Comitatus Act.