https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/change-course-american-democracy

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April 20 is the deadline Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Agency head Kristi Noem have for submitting a joint report to President Donald Trump about conditions at the southern border, along with their recommendations for invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 and the National Emergencies Act of 1976.

Hegseth and Noem were given this task by a presidential proclamation declaring a state of emergency at the border, and an accompanying executive order (EO No. 14159) that Trump issued on Jan. 20. The edicts gave the department leaders 90 days to reach their conclusions. Both are based on the theory that the U.S. faces an invasion of undocumented migrants on its southern flank, and are part of a larger set of 51 executive orders, 12 memorandums, and four proclamations Trump promulgated on the first day of his second term.

If any of this comes to pass, it won’t just be undocumented migrants, foreign students, asylum-seekers, and suspected gang members who end up in the crosshairs.

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Originally adopted in 1792 as the “Calling Forth Act,” the Insurrection Act on the books today authorizes the president to deploy the Army and deputize the National Guard to suppress insurrections, rebellions, instances of civil disorder, and unlawful “combinations or assemblages” that obstruct the authority of the United States or the ability of any state to enforce the law.

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https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/change-course-american-democracy