Trump vows to deport ‘millions’ of migrants

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s bold but vague pledge to deport “millions” of migrants facing removal orders, starting next week, came on the eve of his reelection kickoff Tuesday night in Florida — and it vastly overstates the number of likely deportees and the ability of federal agents to round them up.

Like many of Trump’s pronouncements, his tweet may be more about stirring up public attention and anger than setting policy or issuing clear orders to federal authorities. It’s not clear whether a plan actually exists for mass arrests and removals on the scale and speed that the president suggested.

Trump tweeted Monday night that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “will begin deporting the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States … as fast as they come in,” and called on congressional Democrats to address the “border crisis.”

Before leaving the White House for his campaign rally in Orlando, he was asked about reports citing Border Patrol and ICE officials who said they were unaware of any plans to swiftly ramp up deportations. “Well, they know. They know,” Trump said. “And they’re going to start next week.”

An administration official said Tuesday that more than 1 million migrants face deportation orders and “remain at large,” although some immigration advocates said that figure appeared exaggerated. In any case, many migrants facing deportation have long hidden from federal agents, and it’s unclear how many of them ICE agents would be able to find or process.

The removal orders “were secured at great time and expense, and yet illegal aliens not only refuse to appear in court, they often obtain fraudulent identities, collect federal welfare and illegally work in the United States,” said the administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s tweet.

Government data partly contradict that assertion. A Border Patrol official said in April that less than 2% of all immigrants detained at the border as part of family units in the previous year were found to have made false claims.

If ICE conducts mass roundups and arrests, the effort may give Trump political bragging rights on an issue critical to many of the voters who put him in office.

But ICE is unlikely to quickly locate and remove vast numbers of migrants, and subsequent court hearings and potential appeals would further strain ICE resources. The overburdened law enforcement agency often is responsible for transporting individuals to immigration courts and detaining them as their legal battles drag on.

“It’s not practical to think that our immigration system at this moment in time could handle … this directive and this order,” said Jennifer Quigley, director of refugee advocacy for Human Rights First, an advocacy group.

ICE already has been stretched thin by the near-record influx of migrants at the southern border, chiefly from Central America, over the last year. Its record of deportations was relatively low even before that. In fiscal 2017, which includes Trump’s first six months in office, ICE deported only 226,119 immigrants, according to federal data.

Traditionally, ICE has prioritized criminals for deportation. Of the 160,000 arrests made by ICE in 2018, about 120,000 were picked up illegally crossing the border, or were in custody of law enforcement for criminal offenses. Only 40,000 were detained in ICE raids or other actions inside the country.

Randy Capps, a research director at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said ICE doesn’t have the manpower to carry out a vast surge of arrests.

“How are you going to get from 40,000 to a million?” he said. “Are you going to hire 25 times as many ICE officers?”

In its statement Tuesday, the White House offered its rationale for going after migrants facing deportation orders from immigration courts, which are run by the Department of Justice and are not part of the federal judiciary.