17. Department of Justice

Project 2025 link: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Our own page-by-page deep dive

  • Trump (or any GOP president) would direct the DOJ’s actions, including these campaign promises against immigrants.
    • Trump just stated that he would invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which grants presidents the authority to remove foreign nationals over the age of 14 where the U.S. in engaged in war or subject to “invasion or predatory incursion” by their country of origin. This allows the administration to “suspend the due process that normally applies to a removal proceeding.” says sociopathic former advisor Stephen Miller. Court-shopping and a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court could make this unconstitutional action a reality.
    • Would enforce Trump’s will to detain and deport whomever he want to.
    • Would advance Trump’s desire to end birthright citizenship. 
    • Would reinstate family separation policies
    • Would shut down asylum access to asylum
    • Would use the Alien and Sedition Acts to enforce deportation.
    • Would invoke Insurrection Act to deploy massive numbers U.S. troops at the border. This would allow him to bystep the Posse Comitatus Act which bars American Prosidents from using the military as a domestic police force.
  • (Pg. 546) FBI becomes enforcement arm of politicized DOJ, 
  • (Pg. 546) FBI/DOJ would no longer combat spread of disinformation
  • (Pg. 552) Abolish term of service for FBI director so he/she can be politically accountable (fired at will) to President. 
  • (Pg. 552) Prioritize parental rights over “imaginary, politically convenient threats of violence toward members of school boards and their staffs.”  
  • (Pg. 553) Increase federal law enforcement presence and use federal law to override and even initiate legal action against local prosecutors in jurisdictions they feel have weakened the rule of law. (Prosecutors in sanctuary states, beware!)
  • (Pg. 554) Enforce death penalty and extend it for crimes involving sexual abuse of children. ( % of false allegations is large – contentious child custody cases will become more exciting and no adult will ever be in a room alone with a minor again.)
  • (Pg. 555) Finish border wall and use active-duty military personnel and National Guardsman to assist in arresting people.
  • (Pg. 556) Restart Trump’s China Initiative. (Ignore Russia)
  • (Pg. 558) Accuses FBI of using Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE Act) to harass forced-birth demonstrators while not pursuing violence committed against pro-life pregnancy resource centers. (However, this assertion does not appear to be true. The DOJ has pursued cases against each.)
  • (Pg. 559) All litigation decisions must be consistent with the President’s agenda. 
  • (Pg. 562) Religion over civil rights. The DOJ should return to “nondiscrimination,” i.e. protecting religious sensibilities of cake bakers against the rights of LGBTQ persons. 
  • (Pg. 562) Eliminate access to abortion medication: Enforce Comstock Act against providers and distributors of abortion pills that use the mail 
  • (Pg. 563) Interfere with state election guidance. (the 2020 election butthurt continues)
  • (Pg. 564) Angry parents/religious folk over others: Reject third-party requests for help – School board members and public school employees asked for help against death threats from parents. This wasn’t REAL terrorism like pregnancy care centers faced…
  • (Pg. 567) Threats to immigrants:
    • Innovation in use of oppressive forces – “creative use of the various immigration and immigration-related authorities in close partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, and other appropriate federal entities depending on the situation.” What does this even mean?
    • Target “sanctuary” jurisdictions, overturn every Biden administration immigration decision and restore every rule from the Trump Administration. This fundamentally undermines the rule of law, order, democracy and predictability in our government by directing folks to just pretend the last 4 years never happened, and return to the policies that were largely impossible to enforce and often determined to be unconstitutional.
    • Overturn humane rules, like the Flores Settlement. The Flores Settlement was a federal case which was settled and imposes standards on the treatment of immigrant children in US custody. Generally, kids should be held for the least amount of time possible, in the least restrictive setting possible, and every effort should be made to reunite them with family or care providers asap, following vetting of those people for the child’s safety. Both in DOJ and DHS portions of this document, the authors target this 25 year old Agreement, seeking to end what they regard as onerous and unnecessary protections for migrant children.
    • Fraud program at EOIR – seems to say that they have had it with the shady lawyers taking advantage of immigrants who are in deportation proceedings, a worthy goal. But, in the context of their wider effort to speed removals of people from this country, this idea seems more intended to go after EVERY immigration lawyer, making it less appealing to represent people in deportation proceedings if you know that the Department of Justice will be watching you to make sure you are not committing “fraud.”
  • (Pg. 569) Schedule F everyone. Make sure there are political appointees everywhere.