Former President Donald Trump is planning an expansion of the hardline immigration policies from his first term if elected for a second term in 2024. Part of the promised package includes detaining undocumented immigrants already in the United States and placing them in detention camps while awaiting deportation.
The plans, reported by The New York Times, aim to construct large camps to house migrants awaiting deportation and to enlist federal and state agents to apprehend them.
Should Congress refuse to fund the operation, Trump may resort to a tactic used during his first term to secure more funding for the wall at the Mexico border—redirecting Pentagon funds.
The announcement of the proposals came after Trump, at a rally in Florida last week, promised to conduct “the largest deportation operation in American history” and argued that criminals were crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, warning about “young and strong people with bad intentions.”
Trump promised to sign an executive order on the first day of a potential second term to stop funding shelters and transportation for undocumented immigrants, stating at a rally in New Hampshire that he would redirect the money to “shelter and treatment for our own homeless veterans.”
He also claimed, without evidence, that President Joe Biden has already spent over 1 million dollars to place undocumented immigrants in “some of the most luxurious hotels in the country.”
Trump has intensified his sharp rhetoric on immigration in recent weeks. He has publicly stated that he wishes to revive many of his immigration policies from his first term to restrict both legal and illegal immigration—including reinstating and expanding a travel ban on citizens from predominantly Muslim countries and returning to a Covid-era policy known as Title 42, which restricts entry into the country on the grounds that migrants are carriers of infectious diseases.
Stephen Miller, a former Trump administration official who led Trump’s immigration policy, told The Times: “Any activist who doubts President Trump’s resolve is making a drastic mistake: Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular crackdown on migration.”
Miller told The Times that Trump’s immigration plans are being designed to avoid the need to create new legislation. During Trump’s first term, he heavily relied on executive orders to implement his immigration policy. Many of these measures were challenged in court, something Miller acknowledged is likely to happen again in a second Trump term.
Source: The New York Times and CNN