Trump’s return to the White House sets the stage for far-reaching immigration crackdown

ELLIOT SPAGAT and GISELA SALOMON

SAN DIEGO (AP) — “Build the wall” was Donald Trump’s slogan in 2016, and he made good on his promise, committing military budgets to build hundreds of miles of wall along the border with Mexico. “Mass deportation” is the buzzword that has galvanized supporters of his 2024 White House bid.

Trump’s victory sets the stage for rapid crackdown after AP VoteCast Poll showed that the president-elect’s supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation, issues the Republican raised throughout his campaign.

How and when Trump’s actions on immigration will take shape is unclear.

Although Trump and his advisers have proposed general provisions, many questions remain about how they are deporting the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally. How will immigrants be identified? Where will they be detained? What if their countries refuse to take them back? Where will Trump find the money and train officers to deport them?

Trump said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country with which the United States is at war. He talked about deploying the National Guard, which could be activated by order of the governor. Stephen Miller, Trump’s top adviser, said troops led by sympathetic Republican governors would be sent to neighboring states that refused to participate.

Trump, who has repeatedly said immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States, has struck fear into immigrant communities with his words alone.

Julie Moreno, a US citizen who has been married to a Mexican man in the country illegally for seven years, is coming to terms with the idea that she may have to live separately from her husband, who came to the US in 2004. She could move to Mexico from New Jersey, but continuing to run the boxing glove import business would be nearly impossible.

“I don’t have words yet, there are too many feelings,” Moreno said, her voice cracking as she spoke Wednesday of Trump’s victory. “I am very afraid for the safety of my husband. … If they detain him, what will happen?”

Moreno’s husband, Neftali Juarez, was in the construction business and feels he contributed to the country by paying taxes and providing jobs through his company. “Unfortunately, the mood of the people who voted is different,” he said. “I feel terrible losing my wife.”

Some political experts expect Trump’s first immigration moves to be at the border. He can put pressure on Mexico continue to block migrants from reaching the US border, as has been the case since December. He can rely on Mexico to restore Trump-era policies that forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for a hearing in US Immigration Court.

Andrew Arthur, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports immigration restrictions, emphasized Vice President-elect J.D. Vance’s campaign remarks that deporting millions would be done in stages rather than all at once.

“You’re not talking about a seine,” Arthur, a former immigration judge, told The Associated Press. “There is no way to do this. The first thing you need to do is seal the border and then you can work on the inside. This will all depend on the resources you have available.”

Elena, a 46-year-old Nicaraguan who has been living in the U.S. illegally for 25 years, could not sleep after Trump’s victory and cried about what to do if she and her 50-year-old husband were deported. They have two adult daughters, both U.S. citizens, who have developed stomach pains and breathing problems due to election anxiety.

“It’s so hard for me to leave the country that I call home,” said Elena, who lives in South Florida and gave only her first name for fear of deportation. “I’m rooted here and it’s hard for me to give up everything to start over.”

Advocates are studying where deportation arrests might occur and are especially looking at whether authorities are adhering to a longstanding policy of avoiding schools, hospitals, places of worship and disaster relief centers, said Heidi Altman, federal advocacy director for the National Immigration Act. Immigrant Justice Center Fund.

“We take this very seriously,” Altman said. “We should all be widely aware of the fact that this is not 2016. Trump and Stephen Miller learned a lot from their first administration. The courts look very different than they did four years ago.”