By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Contributing Columnist
In July 2024, Donald Trump’s then national press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued this statement: “A majority of Americans want mass deportations for illegal immigrants. … On Day One back in the White House, President Trump will begin the largest criminal deportation operation of undocumented immigrants and restore the rule of law.”
This is the second in a two-part series on how President-elect Donald Trump will govern. The series is based on Hutchinson’s latest work, “Day 1: The Trump Reign” (Middle Passage Press).
Leavitt simply reiterated a vow Trump made at virtually every campaign rally. In typical Trumpian fashion, he added the shocker: The deportation would be the greatest mass deportation in history.
This was not simply overblown Trump campaign hyperbole. He actually did have a semblance of a plan in place to implement the draconian vow.
He would target migrant immigration camps, state and local jails, and any other holding facility for undocumented immigrants. He would then undertake what he labeled “expedited removal.”
That meant specifically targeting illegals that had criminal records, who committed crimes here or had any other negative legal mark on their record. To ensure that they got the quick boot, he would end the much-reviled catch and release policy.
Children would not be exempt from release. There would be no temporary protected status. Trump would put the screws on Mexico to do everything, up to and including use of its military, to prevent illegals from entering the U.S.
In addition to the almost certain massive demonstrations and legal challenges and pushback to the “biggest deportation,” there would also be the matter of who and how the big round up was going to be paid for. Congress would have to shell out billions for the task.
The Republican-controlled Congress would certainly look with great favor on the requests for more dollars to fulfill the big deportation plan. Even Trump’s appointed “border czar” Tom Homan in effect admitted that his tough talk rhetoric about immediately sending them all back couldn’t happen.
There was still a cumbersome process that had to happen. The obvious obstacle was that the country they came from would have to accept them back and cough up money for their travel documents. That was hardly a given.
To skirt the myriad legal and logistic roadblocks, Trump claimed again that he would declare a “national emergency.” That way he could tap the military for resources and personnel to get the job done. And a job it would be.
It would entail collaring upwards of 10 million persons who were illegally in the U.S. and then booting them out. Homan admitted this was a daunting task. But in a line that echoed his boss, he again talked tough.
“But we’re going to be out there looking for them [and] when we find them, remove them,” he said.
He gave one more assurance that he and Trump meant business on the issue. He cited the recommendation he made in 2018 to Trump that his administration should prosecute any and all adults, and that included parents with their children who entered the country illegally. The policy sparked rage and fury.
Trump backed down from pushing hard for separating the children from their parents. But with a fresh mandate from the public to crackdown, a congenial Congress, and the non-stop talk and belief that criminal gangs of illegals are overrunning the country, the hold detention and separation policy almost certainly would be back on the table.
Two policies on immigration that almost assuredly would be the first to go are catch and release and birthright citizenship. President Joe Biden signed off on the catch and release policy and took much heat for it.
The policy was to let undocumented immigrants go after they were apprehended. They were released because there were no facilities to hold them in the big numbers caught. It took months, if not years, because of the backlog in the courts to resolve their appeals for asylum.
The other was citizenship by birthright that presumably is accorded in the Constitution. Trump disputed that and Homan was emphatic. “One thing that we’re going to have this president do … [is] end birthright citizenship,” he said.
Trump wouldn’t wait for Congress to act, nor would he be likely to rely on it anyway. He would accomplish some of his wish list on illegal immigration through liberal use of executive orders.
That way he would accomplish two things. One it would give the appearance that he was dead serious about the crackdown. This was especially important given that polls consistently showed that most Americans wanted tough action to curb illegal immigration.
Two. It would firmly establish that he had the power and will to exert his dominance on a hot button political issue. Even more, he could drag a Republican-controlled Congress to go along with him on anything he asked for.
Just how great the so-called greatest deportation in American history would ever be is anybody’s guess given the towering hurdles it faced. There was no uncertainty though that Trump’s signature political issue would ever go away as long as he was there to milk the issue for all it was worth.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is “Day 1: The Trump Reign” (Middle Passage Press). He is the host of the weekly the Hutchinson Report Facebook Livesteamed.
