Perhaps the No. 1 issue on Donald Trump’s priority list is immigration. Trump is vowing mass deportations for millions of undocumented migrants should he win election.
During a rally in Colorado, Trump said he would target “every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil.” His plan is to use a 1798 law “previously used to detain ‘enemy aliens'” during wartime, said Axios. Critics say the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 could be used to detain “lawful immigrants and their U.S.-born children” as well. But a Trump spokesperson said Americans “want mass deportations of illegal immigrants and trust President Trump most on this issue.”
Trump has “long pledged” to conduct widespread deportations, said The Associated Press. But his record as president revealed a “vast gulf” between what he proposes and the “legal, fiscal and political realities” of mass deportations. The biggest year of deportations on record came under President Barack Obama in 2023, when more than 400,000 people were sent back to their home countries. Trump proposes to deport more than 11 million people. “It is going to be logistically extraordinarily complicated and difficult,” said Joseph Nunn of New York University’s School of Law.
‘You have to do what you have to do’
Trump says a flood of undocumented migrants has contributed to increased crime and drug trafficking in America. Many of the migrants are “from prisons, many of them from mental institutions,” he said in an interview with Time Magazine. And he pointed out mass deportations have been conducted in modern American history, under President Dwight Eisenhower. A modern-day version of that effort, he said, would probably involve the National Guard and even the military. “You have to do what you have to do to stop crime and to stop what’s taking place at the border,” he said.
It would be costly. “Apprehending and deporting just 1 million people could cost taxpayers about $20 billion,” CBS News said in an analysis. Deporting 11 million people during a single four-year presidential term “would cost more than 20 times” what the nation has spent on deportations over the last five years. And critics say there would be other forms of fallout. Migrants form much of the labor force for American agriculture, meaning disruptions could “disrupt the U.S. food supply chain,” said Quartz. Similarly, home builders say Trump’s deportation plans “would drive up home costs,” said NBC News.
Narrowing paths to legal immigration
Trump is also taking aim at legal migration, said The New York Times. The former president argues that legal immigration programs created under President Biden — such as those that permit Haitian refugees into the country — “allow immigrants into the country who would otherwise be turned away.” Such a move is in keeping with Trump’s efforts during his single term in office, when he “narrowed” legal paths to asylum and tried to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program focused on adults brought to the United States as children.
One aspect is clear: Trump’s rhetoric on immigration over the last decade has moved the country to the right. “Public opinion toward immigration in general has soured,” Christian Paz said at Vox. Democrats have shifted as well, focusing less on pathways to citizenship and more on securing the border. “The public’s feelings,” Paz said, “have changed drastically.”