Vance predicts net negative immigration number in 2025

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Vice President JD Vance previewed historic numbers on illegal immigration and promised the administration would ramp up deportations in the future. 'I think in 2025 we will have the first net negative immigration number in about 50 or 60 years in the United States,' he said. The vice president spoke about the issue at an artificial intelligence summit in Washington, DC hosted by the four co-hosts of the All-in Podcast.
He addressed criticism that the Trump administration was deporting illegal immigrants at a similar rate as the Biden administration, but said that Biden's numbers were inflated. Under Biden, he explained, any illegal immigrant that was caught crossing the border and immediately removed was counted as an official deportation, but argued that it did not represent a net negative.
Trump's 'net negative' numbers of deportation, he explained, were of illegal immigrants who had already entered and settled in the United States. He conceded that some of the president's supporters were dissatisfied by the low deportation numbers, adding that he 'shared' that frustration. The vice president blamed the courts for trying to slow the number of deportations, but appeared optimistic that the increased funding for ICE in the Big Beautiful Bill would help boost the Trump administration's numbers.
Trump's immigration czar Tom Homan told the Daily Mail at the White House on Thursday he was hopeful the administration could reach Vance's goal before the end of the year. 'I hope so too but it depends on how quickly we can get the resources in,' he said. 'Great goal ... but I don't know, there's too many factors, how many people we can we get on the streets.' 'Our goal is to arrest everyone we can,' he added. 'Prioritize the criminals, address the nationals security threats.'
Vance said there were many voices in the administration who had differing opinions on immigration, but that he sided with the hardliners on the issue. 'Me and Stephen Miller are probably the two most hardline people in the entire administration when it comes to immigration, so there's always more that we can do,' he said, referring to the president's deputy chief of staff who also serves as the president's homeland security advisor. Vance acknowledged the president was sensitive to industries like farms and restaurants who relied in illegal immigration, but that the deportations would continue.
'What the president has said, we're not going to do amnesty in this country, we are actually not going to tell people who have come into the country illegally that they're allowed to break our laws and get rewarded for it,' he said. During the presidential campaign, Vance indicated he wanted to see one million deportations a year, but estimates show the Trump administration could only deport about 500,000 at the current rate. Trump's enhanced focus on deportation has outraged Democrats and immigration advocates who argue that his policies are brutal and inhumane.
Reports of masked ICE agents arriving at immigration courts in New York or Home Depot parking lots in California to arrest day laborers has drawn increased criticism. But the vice president pointed to the administration's work to stop drug cartels, reducing the number of missing children at the border and the work of human traffickers.
'When you enforce the nation's border laws, that is the most compassionate thing to do both for your own people but also the people who are illegally trafficked,' he said and added, 'there's nothing discompassionate, there's nothing hateful about enforcing your own borders.' As the vice president appeared at the summit to talk about tech policies and artificial intelligence, he was also sharply critical of tech companies for laying of American workers but still trying to get more work visas for cheap foreign labor.
'I don't want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, "We can't find workers here in America.' That's a [expletive] story,"' he said. He noted that critics of the administration who warned that deporting illegal immigrants would actually hurt the economy and raise inflation were wrong, citing recent economic numbers.
'It turns out that if you put your faith in American workers, you can build great companies, you can build a great economy, tou don't have to build an entire economy on illegal labor, which is what the Democrats told us we had to do,' he said.