John Kelly Authorizing Troops to Use Lethal Force at the Border Is Unlawful and Alarming

Heather Hurlburt wrote for New York Magazine about a dubious new development in the U.S. military’s domestic border mission.

This might be a bit funny — another crazy Trump spectacle — except that it concerns the president’s most solemn responsibility, and thus threatens to put the world’s strongest fighting force crossways of our democratic practices.

Veterans’ groups have said all the way along that the deployment of roughly 5,900 troops to the border enmeshes them in American politics and is a waste of their training and skills. Now we’re in a situation where some authority figures seem to be saying troops can act as law enforcement officers, while others disagree. Secretary Mattis took time with a press gaggle Wednesday afternoon to stress that the military would not violate the Posse Comitatus Act. “I have the authority,” Mattis said when asked about the Cabinet order, noting that pictures of troops at the border show they’re unarmed. “Relax. Don’t worry about it.” Nevertheless, this is still a recipe for confusion, and potentially for tragedy — what happens if stressful, chaotic situations arise on the border, like demonstrations?

Lawyers had another concern: was the White House asserting its right to skip legal review or, even more broadly, was it saying that the president’s responsibility to defend the country allows him to ignore laws he doesn’t like? That’s a precedent that could affect lives and freedoms all across the country, and far from the border, from surveillance to search to immigration and more.