Trump could have tough time meeting deportation threat
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump could have a tough time making good on his threat to deport millions of people living in the U.S. illegally. But maybe that wasn’t his point.
Trump’s late-night messages promised that starting next week his administration “will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in.”
That was a pronouncement likely to excite his political base just as he was formally announcing his reelection bid Tuesday night.
It also scared immigrants in the U.S. illegally — and could deter others from coming.
But it came at a cost. Trump blatantly exposed an upcoming enforcement operation, potentially jeopardizing the kind of sensitive effort that takes months to plan and relies on secrecy. The president’s tweets put new, fresh demands on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency in charge of removals, which is already overwhelmed, lacking staff, funding and detention space for its current work. And any massive roundup that includes deportation of mothers, fathers and children would be sure to spark outrage.
The tweets suggested the start of Trump’s reelection campaign is likely to have much in common with his 2016 announcement, when he accused Mexico of sending rapists to the United States and pledged to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. The rhetoric was widely denounced, yet the tough anti-immigration message struck a nerve with many Americans and ultimately helped carry Trump to victory.
But his tough talk hasn’t led to a drop in border crossings since he took office. Trump has threatened a series of increasingly drastic actions as he has tried to stem the flow of Central American migrants, which has risen dramatically despite his hard-line policies. He recently dropped a threat to slap tariffs on Mexico after the country agreed to step up immigration enforcement efforts.
The “millions” referred to in Trump’s tweets referred to the more than 1 million people in the United States with final deportation orders, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to explain the president’s tweets.
Pew Research Center recently estimated there are about 10.5 million people in the U.S. illegally, with long term residents outnumbering recent arrivals.
Some in Trump’s administration believe that decisive shows of force — like mass arrests — serve as deterrents, sending a message to those considering making the journey to the U.S. that it’s not worth coming.
The new acting director of ICE, Mark Morgan, recently signaled a willingness to deport families during enforcement sweeps, though past Trump immigration officials hesitated over concerns about logistics and the public reaction.
U.S. officials with knowledge of the preparations say the operation wasn’t imminent; it was to begin in the coming weeks and be nationwide. But ICE officials were not aware the president would make sensitive law enforcement plans public, and it’s unclear whether the operation now will go off as planned.
There are routine nationwide enforcement sweeps, usually about two per year, requiring months of planning and are time consuming to pull off. Officers have addresses that are often wrong and don’t have search warrants. Immigrants are not required to open their doors, and increasingly they don’t. Officers generally capture about 30% of targets.
Plus, ICE needs travel paperwork from a home country to deport someone, so immigrants often end up detained at least temporarily waiting for a deportation flight.