What Team Trump must do to get deportations right
When it comes to illegal-migrant deportations, President Donald Trump stressed last week, 'We're going to have to use a lot of common sense.'
That principle must keep guiding his team's drive to expel the millions of 'asylum seekers' the last guy waved in.
In particular, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's demand that ICE now aim for 3,000 arrests a day is asking for trouble.
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First, that's impossible if Homeland Security boss Kristi Noem's people focus mainly on the resource-intensive work of going after the worst-of-the-worst — even though those are the deportations with the most overwhelming public support.
Second, hitting the quota almost requires the kind of mass roundups that are the highest-risk, public-opinion-wise.
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And which are also likely to capture pre-Biden (and even pre-Obama) illegal immigrants who've managed to put down some roots — and so prompt the kind of economic troubles that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warned of, such as 'severe disruptions to our food supply.'
But the president can't, and won't, simply abandon one of his central campaign promises —nor should he.
So far, that's meant a zig-zag: 'Changes are coming,' Trump vowed, and a top ICE official then ordered a 'hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture,' restaurants and hotels — only for top Homeland Security brass to order a resumption of such raids
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Even it out, people: Common sense, remember.
First, keep pushing self-deportation, which is cheaper than arresting and removing people. Nearly 1 million have already voluntarily left under Trump, per some estimate.
The president is wise to offer migrants an incentive — $1,000, a one-way flight out of the country and no black mark on your record if you seek to immigrate legally — to self-deport.
Second, balance goals and resources. The Big Beautiful Bill will fund 10,000 new ICE officers and 3,000 border agents (as well as more self-deport grants ) — but until that passes, Miller's quotas are going to force ICE to focus on lower-priority targets.
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Third, make it clear — to both migrants and employers — that widespread reliance on illegal labor can't continue.
Since 1986, the law has required businesses to verify workers' eligibility, but enforcement's been a joke.
That must change — but a gradual transition is key to minimizing economic disruptions.
Bottom line: Trump won election vowing to secure the border and to deport illegal migrants; he's done the first and will keep working on the second.
But as he himself acknowledged, implementation sometimes requires a scalpel, not a hammer, to avoid needless harm — and major political pain.
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