Trump's Czar Dials Back Deportation Rhetoric
Trump is now aiming to deport between 1-2 million people, instead of 20 million.
Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump’s appointed border czar, has privately advised Republican lawmakers to temper their expectations regarding the incoming administration’s initial deportation efforts.
Multiple sources familiar with the conversations revealed that Homan, alongside lawmakers, has been navigating current government funding levels to devise a strategy that targets between 1 and 2 million undocumented immigrants for removal.
This approach is based on the fact that there are approximately 1.4 million people in the U.S. who currently have final orders of removal.
An initial estimate by the American Immigration Council suggests that deporting 1 million people annually could come with a staggering price tag of $88 billion per year, which would total $960 billion over a decade.
These figures underscore the immense financial burden that such a large-scale operation would entail. Under President Joe Biden, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 271,484 immigrants in the previous fiscal year, marking the highest level of deportations since 2014, according to an annual report.
Despite this, the scale of deportations under the incoming administration’s plan could vastly exceed current efforts, raising questions about the feasibility of the operation given the considerable financial and logistical challenges involved.
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