Speaking on Fox News on Friday (AEDT), Homan said the new administration was determined to carry out the policy and that he would meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago this weekend to “put the final touches on the plan”.
Chinese migrants wait to be processed after crossing the US-Mexico border near Jacumba Hot Springs, California in May.Credit: AP
Part of it is likely to involve expanding detention facilities, revoking protections for migrants covered by President Joe Biden’s humanitarian parole programs, and reinstating the so-called “remain in Mexico” program, which requires migrants to stay in Mexico during their immigration proceedings in the US.
But Homan added: “We gotta have the resources to do the job. I’ve been asked 1000 times how many people can you remove in the first year? Well, how many agents do I have? How many buses do I have? How much money do I have for airplanes? ... But I can tell you now, President Trump is committed to whatever he can to get us the money we need.”
While states are not legally allowed to block federal agents from carrying out their duties, Democratic governors have made it clear that they will resist attempts at overreach by the Trump administration.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, for example, said his state would assist in removing dangerous and violent criminals, but in terms of undocumented immigrants more broadly, “what we don’t want is red state National Guard moving into blue states to try to enforce this kind of mass deportation.
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“That is illegal. We want to push back on that and make sure that we’re not allowing that to happen. And I won’t let it happen in the state of Illinois,” he told PBS.
Immigration lawyers and civil liberty groups are also bracing for a fight. The American Civil Liberties Union has more than 15 immigration officers in its national office who have spent the past year preparing for the possible return of a Trump administration.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organisation, plans to hold 100 town hall meetings across the country to speak to communities about their concerns and will seek to educate undocumented immigrants about their legal rights.
Trump watches as Tom Homan speaks at a primary election night party in January.Credit: AP
“For example, they do not have to open the door if a warrant isn’t properly addressed in their name to the proper address,” Juan Proano, the group’s chief executive, told this masthead.
“There is still very much due process that is part of this, and we’re taking it upon ourselves to educate them.”
Trump’s push to use emergency powers for the military to carry out mass deportations comes as he continues to round out his cabinet.
Over the past 24 hours, he has nominated Brendan Carr to head the Federal Communications Commission, an independent agency that regulates TV and radio broadcasters, telephone and internet service providers and satellites.
Carr has been a strong supporter of Elon Musk and his companies – particularly Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX that provides satellite internet services – and is a co-author of the Project 2025 presidential transition plan that Trump claimed he knew nothing about.
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The president-elect has nominated Sean Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and a former Fox News contributor, to be his transport secretary.
“He will make our skies safe again by eliminating DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion programs] for pilots and air traffic controllers,” Trump said of Duffy, who was also a cast member of MTV’s reality TV show, The Real World.
The deportation of illegal immigrants was central to Trump’s election victory over Kamala Harris, but it is by no means a new policy.
More than 1.5 million people were deported from the US under Biden, and millions more were turned away at borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the Obama administration, about 3 million people were deported over eight years, predominantly single men from Mexico who could easily be removed from border regions.
Trump’s plans, however, are more wide-ranging and aggressive, given the use of the military to deport people and the cost involved.
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