Addressing the issue in an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS program 60 Minutes, Donald Trump adopted a softer tone on immigrants than he did during his campaign, when he called many of them rapists and criminals immigrants. He instead referred to them as terrific people, saying they would be dealt with only after the border had been secured and criminals deported.
But by placing the number of people he aims to turn out of the country as high as 3 million, Mr. Donald Trump raised questions about which immigrants he planned to target for deportation and how he could achieve removals at that scale.
If Donald Trump wants to deport 2 to 3 million people, he’s got to rely on tactics that will divide communities and create fear throughout the country, said Mr Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies of NY. He would have to conduct a sweep, or raids or tactics such as those, to reach the numbers he wants to reach. It would create a police state, in which they would have to be aggressively looking for people.
The details are crucial to understanding the approach of a president-elect Donald Trump who centered his campaign on a promise to build a border wall and deport lawbreakers. On Monday, Barack Obama said he would urge Donald Trump to consider leaving in place his executive actions that have shielded from deportation immigrants brought to the United States of America illegally as children.
Asked Donald Trump on 60 Minutes whether he would seek to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants, Donald Trump said his priority would be to remove people that are criminal and have criminal records.
What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million. We are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate, Donald Trump said. But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally.
Mark Krikorian, a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, has served as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) since 1995. The Center, an independent, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., examines and critiques the impact of immigration on the United States. Animated by a pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted, the Center was established in 1985 to respond to the need for reliable, fact-based research in the immigration area.
Mark Krikorian has been the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think-tank in Washington, D.C since 1995. The Center describes itself as an "independent, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C. that examines and critiques the impact of immigration on the United States. Animated by a "pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted, the Center was established in 1985 to provide immigration research. Mark Krikorian is a regular contributor to the conservative publication National Review, and is as a regular participant at National Review Online's The Corner.
The Barack Obama administration has estimated that 1.9 million removable criminal aliens are in the United States of America. That number includes people who hold green cards for legal permanent residency and those who have temporary visas. It also includes people who have been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as theft, not just those found guilty of felonies or gang-related violence.
They certainly have that many to start, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that supports reduced immigration.
But even if Donald Trump’s numbers are correct and many immigration activists dispute them it is not clear Donald Trump could carry out those deportations quickly without violating due process.
In many cases, convicts would have to go through immigration courts before they could be deported. Those courts are overwhelmed with huge backlogs, so obtaining deportation orders from judges can take many months if not many years. Thousands of immigrants are serving jail sentences that under current law cannot be curtailed. According to official figures, as of June only about 183,000 immigrants had been convicted of crimes and also had deportation orders so they could be detained and removed quickly.
Mr. Donald Trump’s approach would in some ways be a continuation of policies Mr. Obama has pursued to focus immigration enforcement on convicted criminals.
In 2014, his administration issued guidelines instructing agents to make criminals the highest priorities for their operations. In 2015, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures, the majority of the 235,413 people deported 59 percent were convicted criminals, while 41 percent were removed for immigration violations.
Under the Barack Obama administration we have already managed to calibrate our policy with heavy emphasis on criminal aliens, said Muzaffar Chishti, the director of the New York University School of Law office of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group.
Since 2009, Mr. Obama has presided over the deportation of about 2.5 million immigrants, prompting sharp criticism from advocacy groups. He did so in part to build political support for a broad revision of immigration laws that would have provided a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.
Under a now-defunct program known as Secure Communities, the Obama administration used digital fingerprints shared by local law enforcement departments to find and deport immigrants who had committed crimes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also partnered with local authorities to prioritize the arrest and detention of criminal aliens.
Both measures helped drive deportations to roughly 400,000 per year during Barack Obama’s first term. Multiplying that number by many times would almost certainly require reinstituting a program like Secure Communities and employing vastly more immigration agents, as well as using more aggressive tactics to find and remove immigrants who may have broken the law, according to Mr. Kevin Appleby of the Center for Migration Studies of New York.
If Donald Trump seeks to revive programs of close cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities, he is likely to encounter legal challenges and resistance from dozens of cities and counties that have curtailed or rejected cooperation.
Donald Trump has said he would cut off federal funding for cities that refuse to help federal agents detain unauthorized immigrants. During his campaign, he highlighted terrible crimes by immigrants he said had escaped detection because of protective policies.
At a news conference in Chicago on Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, sought to ease fears of deportation and harassment as he reiterated Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city for immigrants.
It is important for families that are anxious, it is important for children and adolescents that are unsure because of Tuesday, to understand the city of Chicago is your home, Rahm Emanue said. You are always welcome in this city.
Rahm Emanuel says the outcome of the United States of America presidential election won't impact Chicago's commitment as a sanctuary city for immigrants.
Chicago has been a sanctuary city since the late 1980s. That means authorities and city officials aren't allowed to ask residents about their immigration status during routine activities, like traffic stops.
Rahm Emanuel spoke Monday at a news conference with United States of America Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, state legislators and health experts who say statements made by President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign have caused intense public anxiety.
Mayor Betsy Hodges has taken a personal stand against Donald Trump stating that Minneapolis Police will not assist federal agencies in detaining illegal immigrants.
According to Judicial Watch the policies defy guidelines created by the 9/11 Commission Report, which specifically calls on state and local authorities to help federal agencies crack down on illegal immigration.”
Donald Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding for cities that hold the sanctuary city designation.
Donald Trump’s mandate would force cities to drop the sanctuary city title and work together with federal agencies in detaining and prosecuting illegal immigrants.
In California, lawmakers in a Legislature dominated by Democrats rejected Mr Donald Trump’s numbers and plans. It is erroneous and profoundly irresponsible to suggest that up to three million undocumented immigrants living in America are dangerous criminals, said Kevin de León, the president pro tempore of the Senate. He said Donald Trump’s figures were “a thinly veiled pretense for a catastrophic policy of mass deportation,” and he told immigrants, the State of California stands squarely behind you.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday that he has no plans to change the Los Angeles Police Department ’s stance on immigration enforcement, despite President-elect Trump’s pledge to toughen federal immigration laws and deport millions of people upon taking office.
For decades, the Los Angeles Police Department has distanced itself from federal immigration policies. The Los Angeles Police Department prohibits officers from initiating contact with someone solely to determine whether he or she is in the country legally, mandated by a special order signed by then-chief Daryl Gates in 1979. During Beck’s tenure as chief, the department stopped turning over people arrested for low-level crimes to federal agents for deportation and moved away from honoring federal requests to detain inmates who might be deportable past their jail terms.