President Trump’s decision to launch his second term by declaring a national emergency at the U.S. border triggered an avalanche of opposition from Democratic governors, liberal members of Congress, and pro-migrant organizations vowing to challenge the constitutionality of his sweeping executive actions.

In Monday’s inaugural address, Trump pledged that “all illegal entry will immediately be halted.” The national emergency declaration includes provisions allowing for the deployment of additional military resources to finish the border wall, among other efforts.

“We will have the military at the southern border, but there are other elements of the United States government that will be working throughout the country,” an incoming White House official said during a Monday morning call with reporters.

The executive action targeting children of illegal immigrants, along with a raft of border-related orders Trump signed to overhaul U.S. immigration and border security, attracted condemnation from Pope Francis, as well a host of left-leaning groups.

In an interview Sunday on Italian television, Francis labeled the mass deportation of illegal immigrants “a calamity,” remarks signaling a return to the friction between the pontiff and Trump that marked the president’s first term in the White House.

“This, if it’s true, will be a disgrace, because it will make poor unfortunates who have nothing foot the bill for [global] imbalances,” the pope said. “That doesn’t work. You don’t solve things that way. You just don’t.”

Francis, who has made illegal immigrant and refugee rights a top priority of his papacy, is the most prominent voice pushing back against Trump’s sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy to implement mass deportations.

Other self-anointed U.S. leaders of the Trump resistance also denounced the stricter immigration policies and pledged........

© RealClearPolitics