The Trump Deportation Plan: What We Know so Far

On the campaign trail, President-elect Trump promised on many occasions to carry out the largest mass deportation of illegal aliens in American history.

While it may seem like an extreme position, it’s a move supported by a majority of voters including a decent number of Democrats as well. There simply isn’t an appetite to keep exhausting public resources for people jumping the line and ignoring America’s laws.

According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal (here’s the non-paywall version), the Trump transition team is already fleshing out the details and readying immediate actions on day one that will start the process of removing violent criminals first and then continuing down the line:

Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are drawing up plans to carry out his mass deportation pledge, including discussing how to pay for it and weighing a national emergency declaration that would allow the incoming administration to repurpose military assets to detain and remove migrants.

The behind-the-scenes discussions, which started months before the election and have picked up in the days since Trump’s victory, include policy changes required to increase deportations, according to people working on the presidential transition, members of Congress and others close to the president-elect.

Among the changes: revoking a Biden administration policy directing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to pursue immigrants in the country illegally who haven’t committed other crimes, and making changes to the immigration court system to speed up cases. Trump’s allies have said they are planning first to focus on immigrants in the country illegally who have received final orders of deportation from an immigration court, of which there are about 1.3 million, as well as those with other criminal convictions or charges.

The beauty of such a move is that Trump does not need new laws enacted to enforce existing laws on the books. With the proper executive actions, he can reprioritize deportations for those already on the list and simply speed up the process.

Part of the plan involves an emergency declaration that would free up military resources:

As a first step, Trump’s advisers are discussing issuing a national emergency declaration at the border on his first day in office, which his team thinks would allow him to move money from the Pentagon to pay for wall construction and to assist with immigrant detention and deportation. But the legality of such a move is unclear. A national emergency, Trump’s advisers think, also would unlock the ability to use military bases for immigrant detention and military planes to help carry out deportations.

Despite pearl-clutching from Democrats who constantly prioritize the well-being of illegal immigrants over the well-being of American citizens, the public generally supports the move.

As for costs associated with the plan, Trump made it quite clear that it isn’t about cost, it’s about enforcing the law and ending the chaos, according to NBC News:

Asked about the cost of his plan, he said, “It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”

The price tag for such a move would undoubtedly be a fraction of the money we’ve been sending to Ukraine or wasting on non-essential government pork. It’s a pittance in the pot to secure our southern border and start restoring order in America’s cities. As Trump says, we have no choice if we want to maintain national sovereignty.

Trump is also preparing to revive other parts of his previous immigration policies that were largely successful in deterring illegal border crossings:

Officials from Trump’s first administration have also written draft executive orders to resume construction of the border wall and revise President Biden’s existing restrictions on asylum at the southern border to remove the humanitarian exemptions. They are planning to enter aggressive negotiations with Mexico to revive the Remain in Mexico policy, a person working on Trump’s transition said, and are identifying potential safe third countries where asylum seekers could be sent.

It’s a political no-brainer and something that needs to take shape sooner rather than later.

Rather than act shocked that Trump’s already working on the problem, Democrats should instead explain to people like Patty Morin, a mother who lost a child at the hands of a criminal illegal alien, why she’s wrong to expect better from her government:

This is Patty Morin. Unlike Kamala's rally speakers…

She doesn't have a record deal
She doesn't live in a mansion
She's not a movie star
She's not a billionaire

She's the mother of Rachel Morin who was savagely murdered by an illegal that Kamala let into America. Hear the… pic.twitter.com/qRpOrC0Iix

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 4, 2024