Trump has promised mass deportations. Can he do it in his 2nd term as president?
Former President Donald Trump's comeback victory and potential control of Congress may put him in the position to deliver on a campaign pledge to conduct a "mass deportation" of millions of immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization.
Trump's first term as president was punctuated by anti-immigrant rhetoric and legal maneuvers to crack down on immigration. A similar promise made in his first administration to deport people at a large scale didn't happen because of legal obstacles. Experts say this time could be different.
Trump and the Republican Party in its platform said as president this time he would usher in the "largest deportation program in American history."
During his campaign, Trump and his surrogates amplified examples of undocumented immigrants accused of committing violent crimes, and promoted widely debunked claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets.
"We're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country and we're going to start with Springfield and Aurora," Trump said at a news conference earlier this year. Many immigrants in Springfield have temporary legal status, but Trump has promised to revoke their permission to stay in the country.
Here's what we know about the president-elect's deportation plans:
What has Trump said about mass deportation?
During his campaign, Trump did not release detailed plans on how he would deport the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. But he offered a glimpse into what he might do in campaign speeches and in comments made by his advisers.
“President Trump will restore his effective immigration policies, implement brand new crackdowns that will send shockwaves to all the world’s criminal smugglers, and marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history,” Trump's national campaign press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said.
Former administration officials have told USA TODAY that a mass deportation effort would need to include the help of the U.S. military, local governments and private companies that contract with the government.
A USA TODAY review last month found options available to Trump may include emergency and executive powers to bypass existing protections for immigrants; activation of provisions once used to detain people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War II; the use of local and state police agencies to find and arrest undocumented immigrants; deployment of military and National Guard members; and the redirection of federal employees and resources.
“If I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military,” he said in an interview with TIME earlier this year.
Trump's campaign website also said he would "deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again."
Though a scale-up of deportation actions would surely meet resistance in the courts from immigration and civil rights advocacy groups, Trump could face fewer legal obstacles than he did in his first term. He appointed hundreds of judges to courts that previously hindered his attempts.
WHO WOULD TRUMP DEPORT?: Millions of immigrants are in the U.S. unauthorized. Who would Trump prioritize for removal?
How much could it cost?
Vice President-elect JD Vance has estimated Trump's actions could result in 1 million people being removed from the country each year, a pace the nonpartisan American Immigration Council estimated would cost about $88 billion annually. To deport all the people in the U.S. without authorization would take about a decade and cost nearly a trillion dollars, the council said.
It could be big business for private companies that contract with the government to help detain migrants. Private contracts already exist for nearly every step of the deportation process, including facilities housing people in detention, transportation – including private flights to deport someone to their home country – and security.
Congress currently funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold 41,500 people in detention each day, a number that peaked at about 55,000 during Trump's first term. The American Immigration Council estimates that deporting 1 million people per year would require that capacity to increase by a factor of 24.
BIG BUCKS IN DEPORTATION PLAN: A cost to taxpayers, billions for big business from Trump's deportation promises
Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler, Lauren Villagran, Bart Jansen and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mass deportations: What Trump has said he'll do in his 2nd term