You can’t litigate your way out of an invasion.

Removal is not considered a criminal punishment but an administrative consequence of sovereignty. If it were treated as a form of punishment, it would require due process and could take months to remove even the worst offenders. We see that happening now, and we can no longer afford these delays.

President Donald Trump should challenge overreaching court rulings and use resources more effectively to maximize the number of removals.

End judicial tyranny

Imagine you are a liberal judge on the federal bench. You know the political system — including all three branches of government and both major parties — grants you sweeping authority to dictate policy through an injunction. Regardless of legal precedents, constitutional constraints, rules of standing, or national security concerns, you can issue an opinion that instantly becomes “the law of the land.” Why wouldn’t you exploit that power like a judicial version of Kim Jong Un?

By cutting through the legal obstacles, ICE could apprehend and remove individuals in a single step.

At some point, we must stop blaming judges for legislating with impunity and start holding the other branches accountable for not just relinquishing their own power but for enabling judges to usurp the law. As St. George Tucker wrote in his commentaries on the Constitution, “If we consider the nature of the judicial authority, and the manner in which it operates, we shall discover that it cannot, of itself, oppress any individual; for the executive authority must lend its aid in every instance where oppression can ensue from its decisions.”

If President Trump is unwilling to simply ignore these lawless rulings, he should at least insist that Congress include a provision in a must-pass bill to eliminate all judicial review for deportations. At a minimum, lower courts should be removed from the process entirely. Unless a plaintiff files a habeas petition claiming the individual is actually a citizen or has been misidentified, all removals should be final.

We already have several million immigrants with criminal convictions living in this country, at least eight million who entered during Joe Biden’s term, and many others who arrived earlier. If we continue to extend this level of due process — whether through administrative courts or Article III courts — we risk undermining our sovereignty. This explains why Trump is averaging only a few hundred thousand removals annually at the current pace.

How did President Dwight D. Eisenhower manage to remove more than one million illegal aliens in just a few months in 1954 — after the passage of the modern Immigration and Nationality Act — without facing endless lawsuits? Today, every deportation becomes a legal battle.

Eisenhower’s administration had fewer resources, just 800 Border Patrol agents, and primitive technology. Still, they got the job done because they believed in themselves and in the nation. They also understood that you don’t repel an invasion through litigation. Our immigration system was never designed to grant full due process to individuals here illegally, and that principle should be clarified in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

When court proceedings — even in administrative courts — are required, Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently must provide detention space for each person it apprehends rather than taking them directly to the point of removal. By cutting through the legal obstacles, ICE could apprehend and remove individuals in a single step.

But how?

Maritime removals

Trump is currently using military and commercial flights to remove illegal aliens. Most flights carry only 100 to 200 passengers and are difficult to secure against potential unrest. They also cost more, rely on airports in potentially hostile countries, and require additional personnel.

A better option might be to use Navy and Coast Guard vessels from ports in Florida and Texas, which sit along the Gulf Coast toward Latin America. The president could also call on the Department of Transportation’s National Defense Reserve Fleet. This force of about 100 ships receives nearly $1 billion in annual appropriations and can be activated within 20 to 120 days for emergency sealift operations during wartime or in response to disasters.

The NDRF includes mostly cargo ships and tankers. Its Ready Reserve Force — comprised of 41 vessels — provides extra shipping capacity or rapid deployment for U.S. military forces. These ships are stationed at 18 ports, including three in Texas and one in Florida.

This fleet features National Security Multi-Mission Vessels, each able to carry 1,000 people — far more than the roughly 100-person capacity of a C-17 plane or the 150 to 200 seats on most commercial aircraft. These ships can stay at sea for 14 days without resupply and include medical facilities, enough space for 60 cargo containers, a helicopter landing pad, and roll-on/roll-off vehicle capacity. They could be activated immediately and based at a designated port along the Gulf of America.

By using these vessels, President Donald Trump could transport far more unauthorized immigrants for removal at a lower cost than air travel.

Call up National Guard

One major obstacle to large-scale deportations is a lack of detention space. Shifting to maritime operations would shorten the time illegal aliens spend in custody by reducing reliance on deportation flights. Newly apprehended people would enter detention as those previously held depart.

Yet, Trump doesn’t need hundreds of billions of dollars to build new detention facilities. During Operation Desert Storm, U.S. forces suddenly found themselves guarding 65,000 Iraqi prisoners of war who surrendered en masse. The military constructed temporary detention sites practically overnight. Trump could replicate this approach by ordering the National Guard to set up outdoor facilities near Gulf Coast “deportation ports.” It’s an inexpensive, efficient way to get the job done.

Trump will have only one shot to get mass deportations done right. If he deports just a few hundred thousand people each year despite a mandate to address the crisis, critics will say mass deportations are unworkable and push for amnesty. Now is the time for Trump to use every tool and resource at hand to meet that mandate.