WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised to kick out millions of immigrants living in the United States illegally. It is a message that started during his first run for the presidency in 2016.
"We will seal the border, stop the invasion, and launch the biggest deportation effort in American history," Trump said during a campaign stop along the southern border.
Details about how the Trump Administration plans to carry out this plan have been sparse, but the issue has been cemented as a top priority.
Jorge Sanchez says that as a recently arrived Venezuelan immigrant, he is taking Trump's promises seriously. "I think the biggest worry is deportation, obviously," Sanchez said.
The Republican's messaging about immigration resonated with Trump supporters like Jo-Ann Chase. "They don't want people to come here illegally and be rewarded for doing evil versus good. They work hard for their families, and they want things to be done the right way, the legal way," she told WUSA9.
Apprehending and deporting just 1 million immigrants could cost $20 billion dollars according to a CBS News analysis of federal data. It is estimated that between 11 and 12 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S.
Just hours after Trump's electoral victory, Democrat voters like Anthony Salgado are still grappling with the threats coming from the incoming administration. "When Trump is talking about immigrants and saying how people south of the burden are vermin, he's talking about your family," he said. Salgado says it is especially difficult to process because his father is an immigrant. "It's tough to hear this level of rhetoric at a national scale."
Immigration advocacy groups say they are taking the lessons learned from the first Trump administration to prepare for what could be more attacks on the undocumented community. "We are going to do the same and more than what we did in 2016 because it is our calling, it's our work to be in defense and protection, and organizing those communities to build power for themselves," Sulma Arias with the organization People's Action told WUSA9. She says activists are prepared to organize and also fight back through the courts.
Trump has an extensive track record on immigration, which includes a policy that separated children from their parents near the U.S.-Mexico border and prosecuting mothers and fathers. The policy sought to deter illegal immigration, but following public pushback, the practice was stopped.
In 2020, the Trump Administration also attempted to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children from deportation. That same year, the administration took aim at Temporary Protected Status (TPS). That program also provides protection for thousands of immigrants, including an estimated 260,00 from El Salvador. Both programs continue now due to lawsuits filed by advocacy groups and impacted families.
"We are the ones doing hard work. We are doing tough work that a lot of people don't want to do," Sanchez told WUSA9 as he discussed the rhetoric he was hearing from Trump during the campaign cycle.
Experts have pointed at the economic impact that mass deportation would have on the U.S. Undocumented workers contribute $97 billion dollars in federal, state, and local taxes according to a study by the Center for Migration Studies released this year.