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By: Ilana Siyance
As the 2024 Presidential election heats up, former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican candidate, vowed to resolve the migrant crisis via mass deportations.
As reported by the NY Post, Mr. Trump has frequently spoken about his deportation plans, and recently said in a TIME Magazine interview that he would utilize local law enforcement as well as the National Guard and the military to move his plan forward to fruition. The Trump campaign has said there are “nearly 20 million” illegal migrants currently in the United States, potentially ripe for the “largest” deportation operation in American history. Such an initiative would follow on the heels of former President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback”, during which over 1 million migrants were shipped out of the country in 1954.
The Trump campaign has not specified the details of what resources would be needed to identify, detain and deport the illegal immigrants, but clearly such a big operation would require a massive expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, generous funding from congress, and collaboration with the State Department, former ICE officials told The Post.
Experts have backed the Trump campaigns’ estimate figure of migrants. The 20 million stated from the Trump campaign is “not an unreasonable estimate” given the record-breaking number of migrants entering the country under the Biden administration, Eric Ruark, NumbersUSA’s director of research, told The Post. “There’s probably between 15 and 20 million, given the number of people we’ve seen coming over,” Ruark said, in stark contrast with the US Census Bureau’s official estimate of 11 million.
Tom Homan, former acting director of ICE under former President Trump, said the agency has “systems in place that are very good at identifying people,” but that the speed of the deportations would depend on the resources allowed and cooperation from other branches of government. “A lot of that is going to be up to Congress … We need officers, we need detention beds, we need transportation contracts … because [we would have] more flights heading out of the country and more bus removals down to the border,” Homan said.
“We would still prioritize criminals and national security threats first, they are the most dangerous for the country.” he added. “But I would say no one is off the table. If you’re in this country illegally… then we’ll remove you.” Asked by The Post if he would return to work under Trump term if reelected, Homan said he would “strongly consider” taking a job if asked.
Jon Feere, former ICE chief of staff under Trump, said ICE already has the capacity to detain more migrants than are currently being held by the Biden administration. Still, he said “there’s no doubt that ICE would benefit from a significant increase in officers, agents and detention space” and that if elected Trump would “undoubtedly” make that request of Congress.
Feere told the Post, “I’m sure I will be” involved “in some capacity” if Trump takes office, but he stopped short of specifying what role he might take on.
Aside from potential resistance from the Democratic-led congress and reluctance to cooperate from sanctuary cities, such a massive plan for deportation would also run into obstacles if the countries of origin refuse to allow reentry to their migrants. Such a situation would need to be handled by the State Department, which would need to take on a hard line foreign policy, the former officials told The Post.
