Donald Trump plans to use an all-of-government approach to immigration if he wins a second term. His goal is to deport millions of people that are in the country illegally.
The New York Times recently published a report following an interview with Trump adviser Stephen Miller. According to the report, Trump is considering gathering immigrants that are in the United States unlawfully and placing them in camps as they await deportation.
The former president also wants to reimpose a ban on travel to the United States from certain Muslim-majority countries. He also wants to start denying asylum claims based on public health grounds, very similar to the policy that was enacted during the COVID pandemic.
Trump has said he will immediately invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove gang members and suspected gang members. He also wants to undue what he calls the Biden administration’s open border policies by following the “Eisenhower model.”
“So Eisenhower was very tough on the border,” Trump said at an Iowa rally in September. “People don’t see him as that, but he was. We’ll carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
In a campaign video, Trump explained he wants to end birthright citizenship for the children of people in the country illegally.
“On day one of my term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship,” Trump said in the video. “It’s things like this that bring millions of people to our country.”
Trump’s executive order would challenge the 14th Amendment. The amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
Trump’s previous calls to ban birthright citizenship were called unconstitutional by legal groups, including the ACLU.
“You obviously cannot do that,” former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told a Kentucky radio station in 2018. “You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.”
Beyond the border, Trump said he will use the Navy to create what he called a “fentanyl blockade.”
Trump did something similar to the blockage during his first term as president. The U.S. Southern Command sent naval destroyers, Coast Guard cutters, helicopters and other aircraft to the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean on anti-narcotics operations. Those operations led to the seizure of at least $700 million worth of drugs.
