President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to deport all undocumented immigrants in the United States over his upcoming four-year term. Speaking during an NBC News interview on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, Trump described the initiative as a “tough but necessary” action. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that 11 million people were in the country without legal status as of January 2022, which is surely a low figure by now. Trump harkened back to enforcing the laws on the books: “You have rules, regulations, laws.
Despite the hardline rhetoric, Trump showed a willingness to bargain over protections for “Dreamers,” young people brought into the country illegally as children. Republicans, he said, are willing to deal. In his first term in office, Trump tried to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which offers deportation relief and work authorization to Dreamers, but the Supreme Court blocked the effort.
Trump also vowed to take executive action on his first day in office to end birthright citizenship-a constitutional right that grants U.S. citizenship to anyone born in the country regardless of the immigration status of the parents-a proposal based on the 14th Amendment expected to face a difficult path to legality. Trump acknowledged it would be hard and perhaps would require a constitutional amendment, which he referred to as “arduous.
In-coming border czar Tom Homan and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller have pressed for massive funding to backstop the crackdown. Homan was quoted saying that Congress needs to put up a lot of resources into immigration enforcement as the number of deportations could cost as high as 88 billion dollars annually in an estimate by the pro-immigration American Immigration Council.
Trump is likely to declare illegal immigration a national emergency when he assumes office on January 20, mobilizing federal resources to carry out his immigration agenda. These plans represent an intensified focus on immigration enforcement, sparking both support and opposition.
