Former President Donald Trump predicted Friday that he would break the record for the number of people deported from the United States if he wins a second term.
President Trump has vowed to launch the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. Tom Homan, who led immigration enforcement as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first year and a half of the Trump administration, proudly pitched the idea at the Republican National Convention this summer, urging undocumented immigrants to start packing their bags. I appealed.
“Let me tell you what won’t happen first,” he said of the mass deportation plan on 60 Minutes. “It’s not mass clearing of neighborhoods. It’s not building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”
Plan for mass deportation
More than 11 million illegal immigrants, about 3% of the population, live in the United States. Nearly 80% of them have lived in the country for more than 10 years, according to estimates from the Department of Homeland Security.
Homan, who said he would join President Trump’s administration if he wins a second term, said the mass deportation operation would be based on targeted arrests.
“Based on a number of investigative processes, we will know who to arrest and where they are most likely to be found,” he said.
Tom Homan 60 minutes
President Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, said it would be reasonable to deport 1 million people a year. And President Trump’s chief immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year that a major military air campaign would remove deportees from the country.
“Once the illegal immigrants are captured and transported to a transit point, the planes will wait for federal law enforcement to transport the illegal immigrants back to their home country,” Miller said at a news conference. “You’re conducting immigration enforcement on behalf of the National Guard.”
Homan did not use the word “raid,” but said immigration enforcement operations at work sites would be necessary.
“If I were in charge of this, my first priority would be public safety threats and national security threats,” he said.
He said others will likely follow suit in seeking expulsion. For example, if an undocumented grandmother is found in a home during targeted enforcement, an immigration court judge would have to decide her fate, Homan said.
“Let the judge decide,” he said. “We’re going to remove people who have been ordered deported by a judge.”
policy shift
Mr. Homan’s proposal that grandmothers living in the United States illegally could be arrested would mark a major shift in policy. Under President Biden, ICE primarily targets people deemed to pose a threat to national security or public safety, as well as people who have just crossed the border illegally.
“Illegal entry into the country is unacceptable. It’s a crime,” Homan said. “It causes illegal immigration, even though there are no consequences.”
The vast majority of the 4 million deportations carried out by the Biden administration have occurred at the southern border, where an unprecedented influx of migrants has created chaos, created a humanitarian crisis and created Vice President Kamala Harris’ biggest political vulnerability. It has become a part of sexuality.
More from CBS News
Cecilia Vega
