Democrats at the local, state, and federal levels are planning to push back against President Trump’s planned mass deportation operation, which the president-elect has promised will be the largest since the 1950s. Polls have shown, however, that support for such a deportation scheme has increased significantly and played a major role in voters’ decisions this year. 

Trump’s plans to use the military are likely the first hurdle he’ll have to climb, given that it is a gray legal area for the president to deploy active duty troops for the purposes of law enforcement and migrant deportation. Senator Paul, in an appearance on Face the Nation on Sunday, called such a plan “illegal.”

“You don’t do it with the Army because it’s illegal,” Mr. Paul said. “I’m for removing these people, but I’d do it through the normal process of domestic policing.”

“I would use the FBI, I would use ICE, I would use border patrol,” he added.

In interviews with Politico, a number of blue state attorneys general said that they would absolutely fight Trump in court should he choose to send in the military or deputize the national guard for deportation purposes. 

“There are ways to [handle immigration] that are in line with American values and conform to American law. But they don’t seem to be interested in pursuing that,” New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, told the outlet. “And that’s where someone like me has an important role to play.”

In one of the more famous post-election examples of Democrats trying to stand up to Trump on the deportation issue, Denver, Colorado’s mayor Mike Johnston said he will deploy police officers and encourage protests should Trump send the military — as he has promised to do across the country — into his city. He likened a potential pro-migrant Denver protest to one of the most famous demonstrations in modern history. 

“It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment … right?” Mr. Johnston told a local outlet, Denverite. “You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.” The mayor later walked back those comments, however, saying he should not have used such language, but reiterated that there would be protests in the streets if Trump followed through on his promises. 

Trump has said he will name his deportation effort “Operation Aurora,” named for the city just outside of Denver that came into the national spotlight after a number of criminal migrants took over a handful of apartment complexes. 

Support for deportation efforts has increased in recent years despite the pushback from Democrats. According to a poll from CBS News and YouGov released Sunday, support for a mass deportation effort has gone up markedly in the last few years. The survey shows that 57 percent of Americans support the removal of migrants who are in the country illegally, while only 43 percent oppose the move. Along party lines, 90 percent of Republicans, 56 percent of independents, and even 27 percent of Democrats say removal would be a good idea. 

Black Americans support mass deportation of migrants to the tune of 46 percent, while 48 percent of Hispanics support removal of criminal migrants. Even among Americans under the age of 30, support is split, 50–50.

Some experts have pointed out that some of these polls about immigration and deportations have been misleading, given that Americans support both the removal of criminal aliens while also supporting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for decades, and may have a work authorization. 

Trump has not been entirely clear in how far he would be willing to go to deport those migrants who are here without authorization and who may be working and paying taxes. The president-elect’s  new “border tsar,” Tom Homan, has said that the new administration’s day one priority is to kick out any and all migrants who have committed crimes, though he has also said families may be deported “together.”

Some Democrats say that those voters who supported Trump and maybe have migrant family members are going to learn very quickly that Trump, Mr. Homan, and the rest of the deportation team are serious about going after everyone — not just those who came to America and committed violent crimes. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez recently told a new immigration-focused outlet Migrant Insider that voters were sold a false bill of goods when Trump only talked about getting rid of criminals. 

“I think the Trump campaign ran on this narrative that they were talking about somebody else — that they were just talking about ‘criminals’ to be deported,” the congresswoman said of the alleged deception. “The administration believes that anybody who is here undocumented has committed a criminal act.”