If he wins re-election next year, Donald Trump promises to deport millions of illegal immigrants across the country in the “largest mass deportation effort” in American history.
In a recent interview with TIME Magazine, the 45th president talked about his plan to deport people. He said that he would use local police, the National Guard, and the military to carry out his plan, similar to how former President Dwight Eisenhower used “Operation Wetback” to send more than a million migrants away in 1954.
The Trump 2024 campaign hasn’t talked about what tools would be needed to find, arrest, and send back to their home countries the “nearly 20 million” illegal immigrants they say are in the US right now.
Eric Ruark, head of research for NumbersUSA, told The Post that the 20 million claim from the Trump campaign is “not an unreasonable estimate” when you look at the changes and the record-breaking number of migrants coming into the US under the Biden administration.
Based on how many people have come over, Ruark said, “There’s probably between 15 and 20 million.” This is different from the US Census Bureau’s official estimate of 11 million.
For Trump, Tom Homan was acting director of ICE. He said that the agency has “systems in place that are very good at identifying people,” but the speed of the deportations would rely on how many resources were available.
“Congress will have to decide a lot of that…” We need police cops, jail beds, contracts for transportation, and more. Homan said, “Because there would be more flights leaving the country and more bus removals down to the border.”
“Criminals and threats to national security would still come first because they are the most dangerous to the country,” he said. “But I don’t think anyone is safe.” We will remove you if you are in the country illegally.
The Post asked Homan if he would go back to work if Trump won a second term. Homan said he would “strongly consider” getting a job if asked.
Jon Feere, who used to be Trump’s chief of staff at ICE, said, “There’s no doubt that ICE would benefit from a significant increase in officers, agents, and detention space.” He also said that a Trump administration would “undoubtedly” tell Congress about this request.
But Feere said that ICE already has the power to hold more migrants than are being held by the Biden government.
A Democratic-led Congress might not want to pay for more law enforcement, and a Trump administration might have trouble sending migrants back to their home countries if those governments don’t let them back in. They told The Post that the State Department and a strict foreign policy would have to work together to solve that problem.
Feere said that the State Department could use Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to punish countries that won’t take back their people by not letting them get visas.
