JD Vance, Republican vice presidential nominee, says that one of the things he would do upon the victory of the Trump-Vance 2024 ticket is to pursue a mass deportation scheme against undocumented immigrants. He shared his stance on the issue with ABC News, explaining how millions of immigrants would be sent out of the country.
Vance’s proposed plan
For instance, Vance said that the Trump administration was going to initiate deportation by removing 1 million immigrants, and potentially deport up to 20 million in total. According to him, such a sequential approach would focus on deporting violent criminals and ensure much tougher conditions on American employers to hire only documented workers, which, apart from other things, is going to decrease illegal immigration massively.
“I think it’s interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let’s start with 1 million. That’s where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there,” Vance said.
Potential impact on immigrants
Vance’s proposal would have far-reaching effects and would send millions of immigrants in the country back to their homelands. Among millions of immigrants already in the country, it does not say who would be first in line to leave, but stating their belief, one could assume these include criminal immigrants and the most recent immigrants in the country.
It does, however, bring up issues of due process and abuse potential. Deporting 1 million people en masse is a logistical endeavour of unimaginable scales, yet the administration can barely explain how it will go about identifying and apprehending undocumented immigrants.
Legality and feasibility
Legal and feasibility doubts about Vance’s mass deportation plan are raised. According to experts, such a widespread deportation campaign would encounter tremendous legal obstacles and would have significant need for resources.
“You start with what’s doable,” Vance explained. Yet most would argue that deporting 1 million immigrants, in so many ways, is not “doable”—legally and logistically.
The likely effects
If Vance’s mass deportation plan were to be implemented in reality the impact on the US economy and society would be disastrous. As mentioned above, the removal of millions of workers from the nation would create labor shortages in all the critical industries e.g agriculture, construction.
Also, the plan would likely scatter families, since many of the illegal immigrants have children who are either U.S. citizens or legal residents. That would have a negative impact on the survival of those families both emotionally and financially.
Comparison to Trump’s previous deportations efforts
During his presidency, Donald Trump favored many policies that went a long way in ensuring the reduction of illegal immigration, for instance, the construction of the wall with Mexico and a boosted interior enforcement. On the contrary, it fell way short of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants from the country.
Vance’s plan apparently takes over from where Trump left in a hardline policy on immigration, but with better results than Trump’s previous administration, it is debatable how correct this turns out to be.
JD Vance’s mass deportation plan is rather controversial and ambitious. It aims to take down millions of the documentless from America’s mainland. While it could fire up some voters, there would be huge legal and practical implications, including one of the greatest mass deportations in history.
