Donald Trump says he will will immediately deport or incarcerate 2 million to 3 million “criminal” undocumented immigrants once he takes office in January.
{mosads}“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million — it could be even 3 million — we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” the president-elect said in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which is set to air Sunday evening.
“But we’re getting them out of our country. They’re here illegally.”
After the border is “secure,” Trump said, his administration will begin to make a “determination” about what to do with the remaining undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
“After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that they’re talking about, who are terrific people — they’re terrific people, but we are going to make a determination at that,” he said. “But before we make that determination … it’s very important, we are going to secure our border.”
While Trump opened his campaign with a promise to create a “deportation force” to rid the U.S. of its more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, he has occasionally appeared to back down on that vow.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday that a plan to forcibly remove undocumented immigrants from the country is unlikely.
“We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump is not planning on that,” Ryan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”