Rep. Byron Donalds, Republican of Florida, a prominent ally of Donald Trump, downplayed the chances that the military will play a major role in what the president-elect has envisioned as a massive deportation effort once he takes office. functions.
Speaking to “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Donalds said local and federal law enforcement, like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would take the lead in deportations, which, he said would focus on immigrants convicted of crimes and those with previous convictions. legal expulsion orders but remain in the country.
“When we talk about the use of military means, it is only as a last resort. There are more than 6,000 officers who have dedicated their lives to having to expel illegal aliens from our country, people who already have a legal expulsion, “but he was not executed by Joe Biden,” Donalds said.
“I think if you’re going to use military means, it’s only a last resort, but it’s only for logistical purposes, Martha. And so, I think what we have to be very careful about is ‘is not to try to throw this away. The idea that troops in the United States will go door to door.’
Rep. Byron Donalds appears on “This Week,” December 8, 2024.
ABC News
Trump has made immigration a cornerstone of his campaign, blaming President Joe Biden for the record number of unauthorized border crossings that occurred during the first years of his term.
The president-elect has pledged to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally, but also to eliminate some programs providing legal status, including Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and other immigrant groups.
Trump deported about 1.5 million immigrants during his first term, according to an analysis by the Migrant Policy Institute, but Donalds predicted that number would be exceeded during Trump’s second term.
“To speak to you anecdotally, it should be at least 2 million, but it will be more, because the number of people who already have an expulsion order, the people who are in our country who have committed crimes, the people who have already been convicted of murder, they need to leave immediately,” Donalds told Raddatz.
Donalds also predicted that tighter border enforcement and intensified expulsion efforts would lead some undocumented immigrants to leave the country on their own, rather than being expelled by law enforcement, which prohibits them from to return to the country for 10 years.
“When you have an active deportation process, we know that there are aliens who will want to return to their country of origin. They will not want to be involved in the processing process with ICE, because if you are deported through this process, you will then be prohibited from returning to the United States for a period of 10 years,” Donalds said.
“When you turn off the taps on opening our borders, when you turn off the taps on all this aid going to illegal aliens in the United States, and then you have a president of the United States and a government that takes seriously the repatriating people. “Back to their home countries, you will see that the attraction to come to America will not be what it was under Joe Biden,” Donalds added.
