Trump’s 2024 Immigration Crackdown: Mass Roundups and Large Camps Await
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to expand his immigration crackdown if he is re-elected in 2024. According to the New York Times, Trump intends to implement sweeping roundups of individuals who will be held in large camps as they await deportation. The report, based on interviews with Trump’s advisers, including Stephen Miller, who oversaw his immigration policies during his first term, describes the plans as an assault on immigration on a scale unseen in modern American history. The aim is to deport millions of people every year, including those who have been settled in the United States for decades.
As the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Trump is likely to face current President Joe Biden in a rematch of their 2020 contest. However, Trump’s election campaign did not provide a comment on these immigration plans, and the White House declined to comment as well.
During a recent campaign speech in New Hampshire, Trump did not mention the idea of establishing large camps to detain people. However, the Biden-Harris campaign released a statement condemning Trump’s immigration plans, describing them as extreme, racist, cruel policies intended to stoke fear and divide the nation.
The New York Times report indicates that Trump would seek to revive several hardline policies, including the ban on entry for people from certain Muslim-majority countries. He would also reinstate the rejection of asylum claims, using assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases as the basis for refusal.
To expedite deportations, Trump plans to expand a form of removal that does not require due process hearings. Additionally, he would reassign federal agents and deputize local police and National Guard troops volunteered by Republican-run states to aid in sweeping roundups of undocumented individuals. Trump would address the strain on ICE detention facilities by constructing large camps to hold detainees while their deportation cases are processed.
Notably, if Congress refuses to provide funding, Trump would redirect Pentagon funds, as he did with his border wall during his first term, to underwrite this massive operation.
In a recent statement, Trump proclaimed, We’ll stop the invasion on our southern border and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.
The report suggests that Trump drew inspiration from the Eisenhower model, a campaign named after an ethnic slur known as Operation Wetback in 1954, which aimed to detain and expel Mexican immigrants. Additionally, other aspects of Trump’s plan include screening visa applicants for their ideological views, revoking temporary protected status for individuals from countries deemed unsafe, and attempting to end birthright citizenship for babies born in the United States to undocumented parents.
While this report indicates Trump’s intentions for a future immigration crackdown, it is crucial to remember that it represents one perspective. As the political landscape evolves, it is expected that there will be various viewpoints on immigration policy and its implications for both national security and human rights.
