Commentators usually benchmark the first 100 days as a time to assess the initial accomplishments of a new presidential administration. But it may be that ten days earlier, April 20, will mark a more important day on the calendar for the Trump administration.
On that date, the president will receive a report from the secretary of defense and the secretary of homeland security “about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.” That act gives the president broad authority to use the military on American soil. As the Brennan Center explains, “The statute…is the primary exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, under which federal military forces are generally barred from participating in civilian law enforcement activities.”
