Lawfare Archive: Deploying the Military at the Southern Border, with Chris Mirasola
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From November 26, 2024: Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sits down with Chris Mirasola, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center, to discuss the legal and practical considerations surrounding a president’s ability to deploy the military at the U.S. southern border, particularly in light of President-elect Trump’s recent endorsement of “declar[ing] a national emergency” in order to “use military assets” for “a mass deportation program.” They discuss the implications of a national emergency declaration for immigration enforcement, the existing legal framework and historical context, and concerns about using the National Guard in a law enforcement function. They also talk about the logistics of building detention facilities, the Insurrection Act as a significant legal tool that could expand military authority in domestic contexts, and more.
For more on this topic, read Chris’s recent Lawfare article, “How Can Trump Deploy the Military at the Southern Border?” You can watch a video version of this conversation here.
To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Nearly every news alert in 2025 has raised questions, some old, some new, about the law and national security. |
| 0:08.0 | And now you get the chance to ask Lawfare directly. It's time for our annual Ask Us Anything Mailbag podcast, an opportunity for you to ask Lawfare this year's most burning questions. |
| 0:19.0 | You can submit your question by leaving a voicemail at |
| 0:22.1 | 202-643-8474 or by sending a recording of yourself asking your question to Ask Us Anything Lawfare |
| 0:32.8 | at gmail.com by December 16th. |
| 0:50.4 | I'm Isabella Royal, intern at Lawfare, with an episode from the Lawfare Archive for November 29, 2025. |
| 0:53.2 | Since taking office, President Trump has deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, California, |
| 0:57.4 | and the District of Columbia, and attempted to deploy National Guard troops to cities, including |
| 1:01.6 | Chicago, Illinois, and Portland, Oregon. |
| 1:04.6 | Around the same time, in August and September, National Guard troops have also been deployed |
| 1:08.2 | to assist with immigration enforcement in a number of states, |
| 1:17.5 | including Utah, Iowa, Florida, and Arkansas. On November 10th, Lawfare launched a tracker that maps non-disaster federal troop deployments in the United States. For today's archive, I selected |
| 1:22.5 | an episode from November 26, 2004, in which Benjamin Wittes and Chris Mirozola discussed the president's power |
| 1:29.1 | to deploy the military to enforce immigration laws at the U.S.'s southern border. |
| 1:33.7 | They also discussed the implications of a national emergency declaration for immigration enforcement, |
| 1:38.5 | the existing legal framework and historical context, and concerns about using the National Guard |
| 1:42.9 | in a law enforcement function, |
| 1:47.2 | as well as the logistics of building detention facilities. |
| 1:51.8 | The Insurrection Act is a legal tool for expanding military authority in domestic contexts, and more. |
| 2:07.2 | It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare with Chris Mirasola of the University of Houston Law Center. |
| 2:11.9 | Once we get used to even relatively more action at the southern border, it becomes practically, and I also think |
| 2:19.2 | just politically easier to use the military in aspects of daily life within the United States, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.