By Donald Trump’s election victory has set the stage for what could become the most aggressive immigration crackdown in modern American history, transforming his campaign slogan of “Mass Deportation” into potential policy as supporters cite immigration as a top concern in AP VoteCast surveys.
The president-elect’s planned measures face significant logistical hurdles in targeting an estimated 11 million people living in the United States illegally. Trump advisers, including Stephen Miller, have outlined plans to invoke the rarely-used 1798 Alien Enemies Act and potentially deploy National Guard troops, with Republican governors sending forces to states that refuse to participate.
“You’re not talking about a dragnet,” explains Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. “There’s no way you could do it. The first thing you have to do is seal the border and then you can address the interior. All of this is going to be guided by the resources you have available.”
Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America has already sparked fear in immigrant communities. Julie Moreno, a U.S. citizen married to an undocumented Mexican immigrant, faces the prospect of family separation. “I don’t have words yet, too many feelings,” she said, her voice breaking. “I am very scared for my husband’s safety.”
Policy experts anticipate Trump’s initial focus on border enforcement, potentially pressuring Mexico to reinstate Trump-era policies requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings. The administration is expected to dismantle Biden-era programs, including:
– The CBP One app that facilitated nearly one million legal border crossings
– Programs allowing over 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to enter with sponsors
– Expanded refugee admissions currently capped at 125,000 annually
– Temporary Protected Status expansions benefiting hundreds of thousands
The impending changes have devastated families like Elena’s in South Florida. The Nicaraguan mother of two adult U.S. citizens hasn’t slept since the election. “It is so difficult for me to uproot myself from the country that I have seen as my home,” she said, requesting anonymity for fear of deportation.
Immigration advocates are preparing for widespread enforcement actions while monitoring whether authorities will maintain traditional restrictions on arrests at schools, hospitals, and places of worship. “We’re taking it very seriously,” said Heidi Altman of the National Immigration Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Fund. “We all have to have our eyes wide open to the fact that this isn’t 2016. Trump and Stephen Miller learned a lot from their first administration.”
The policies could affect hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and TPS holders like Maribel Hernandez, a Venezuelan mother who broke down discussing the possibility of losing her protected status. “Imagine if they end it,” she said outside New York’s Roosevelt Hotel, her two-year-old son sleeping nearby.
As the administration prepares to take office, questions remain about enforcement capacity, detention facilities, deportation procedures, and international cooperation – fundamental challenges to implementing what would be the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history.
apnews.com
