With President Elect Donald Trump set to take office in January, U.S. immigration policy is expected to change dramatically, with enhanced deportations at the top of the agenda for the new administration.
Ever since Trump’s recent electoral triumph, the logistics of mass deportation have been a hot topic of debate. Under the Biden Administration’s watch, more than 10 million illegal aliens have entered the U.S. While we don’t know the exact number of illegal aliens who currently reside in the U.S., the figure is likely around 20-30 million people. Trump campaigned heavily on reversing the damage of the Biden Administration’s border crisis through mass deportation and received a decisive mandate from the American people on election day to do just that. In the weeks since the election, the foundations of Trump’s mass deportation plan have begun to take shape.
Just days after his election victory, Trump appointed Immigration Reform Law Institute Senior Fellow and former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan to be his “border czar,” signaling a commitment to carry out his mass deportation pledge. Reports have indicated that the Trump Administration intends to target criminal illegal aliens for the first round of deportation and all options appear to be on the table, including using the military to assist in carrying out the program. However, it’s possible that many illegal aliens will leave on their own before much of this is necessary.
The best way to get illegal aliens to leave the country on their own is to make it virtually impossible for them to make money in the country. Many foreign nationals come to the U.S. because our wages and social safety net far exceed the quality of those in their home countries. In Mexico, for example, the minimum wage is less than $15 a day, while in many American cities the minimum wage is $15 an hour. What many Americans see as paltry wages, many foreign nationals see as an opportunity for generational wealth, which fuels the incentives for illegal immigration on a grand scale.
In New York, for example, illegal aliens arriving in the city have been treated to free food, health care, and stays at luxury hotels. Of course, if you offer foreign nationals a grab-bag of free stuff and a significant increase in wages, it stands to reason they will do whatever is necessary to come here. Ending this incentive structure would go a long way towards solving America’s illegal immigration problem.
This strategy has long been known as “attrition through enforcement,” and could be very effective at incentivizing illegal aliens to self-deport without the need to use force and expend resources. Of course, many illegal aliens will decide to stay in the country no matter the circumstances and they will have to be removed by ICE.
This will spark some intense backlash from corporate America and activists who argue that it is cruel to attempt to force this specific set of illegal aliens to leave, but it is necessary to restore the rule of law in America’s immigration system. In a sovereign nation, no person who enters the country illegally can be given a free pass to stay as long as they want. The incoming Trump Administration has been given a clear mandate by the American people to fortify the border and remove those in the country illegally, and they appear prepared to implement that plan.
There are many steps that can be taken to end the economic incentives for illegal immigration. These include heavily taxing remittances, banning illegal aliens from social welfare programs, and cracking down on employers that hire them. If foreign nationals understand they will not be allowed to earn wages or access America’s social safety net, most will stop coming, and many who are already here will simply head for the exits. This is why Homan has vowed to increase workplace raids in order to send a message to corporations that hiring illegal aliens over American workers will not be tolerated.
While illegal aliens with criminal records and orders of removal will likely be the first ones to be deported, the goal should be to remove as many illegal aliens as possible from the country in order to deter future surges at the border. The work of reversing the Biden Administration’s years-long malfeasance at the border will be long and arduous, but it can and must be accomplished.
William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.
