MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It was one of President-elect Donald Trump's signature campaign promises.
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DONALD TRUMP: On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Now he's appointed a border czar, Tom Homan, to carry it out. Homan is Trump's former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He appeared on "Fox & Friends" yesterday.
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TOM HOMAN: I've seen some of these Democratic governors say they're going to stand in the way and they're going to make it hard for us. Well, you know, a suggestion, if you're not going to help us, get the hell out of the way because we're going to do it.
MARTIN: All this week, we are examining what President-elect Donald Trump has promised to do on his first day in office. Today, we'll hear from Andrew Selee with the Migration Policy Institute. That's a nonpartisan organization that focuses on immigration policy. Our co-host Steve Inskeep started by asking Selee what Trump's plan for mess deportation might look like.
ANDREW SELEE: I think the first thing we know he will almost certainly do is cancel humanitarian parole for people that received it, people who came through CBP One - this app that people use to schedule an appointment to come across the border - people who came through the CHNB program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. He will go after people in these sort of tenuous statuses and eventually people who have temporary protected statuses, although that may take longer because they have to run their legal course.
I think the second thing we'll see is changing guidelines for deportation, for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, so that they can arrest anyone and put them into deportation proceedings. That is something that changed under the Biden administration, where they were primarily pursuing people who had criminal records or people who were a threat to national security. I think you're also going to see a shift on workplace raids and looking at places where employers are hiring people without documents, which was not happening for most of the Biden administration. And then I think we get into the big question marks. I mean, he's talked about using - expanding detention facilities. That will almost certainly happen, but whether he'll be able to use military bases or not or other federal facilities, and whether he will try and use the military itself. And that would require going back to the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, and that will almost certainly be litigated in the courts.
STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: You mentioned the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. What is that?
SELEE: It gives power to the U.S. government to hold people who are foreign nationals living in the United States. It is supposed to be designed for a time of war or intense conflict. But I don't think there's any doubt that there are at least some people in the network of people around Donald Trump that are thinking that it could be used, you know, in the moment of what they perceive as an immigration crisis. I'm not sure the courts would agree with that, but I would not be completely surprised if they try and see how far they can push it.
INSKEEP: It sounds like that's the kind of law that would be invoked if you had someone who doesn't have full status to be here but they're waiting on a court hearing, or they have some reason or permission to remain in the United States for now. This would override that? That's how you'd use the Alien Enemies Act?
SELEE: Well, I think they'd want to use it for two purposes. One is to override due process - right? - to make it easier to detain someone and deport them, and also so they could justify using the military, which I think is something that will get a lot of pushback from the U.S. Armed Forces.
INSKEEP: Use the military for what?
SELEE: For supporting rounding up and holding people who do not have legal status.
INSKEEP: Does it matter if someone who's here illegally is in a red state or a blue state?
SELEE: Enormously, yes. I mean, a lot of what the federal government will want to do in a Trump administration requires cooperation from state authorities. And we've seen this before. We saw this during the last Trump administration. There were very successful enforcement efforts against people who are here illegally in red states because local law enforcement was willing to collaborate. It worked out much less effectively in blue states, where local law enforcement wouldn't necessarily not collaborate at all, but they would not put large amounts of resources into collaborating on immigration enforcement. And so I think it will depend on where people live.
INSKEEP: I'm curious if red states really want to be rid of their workforce, many of whom may be here without authorization. Does Iowa, for example, want to get rid of the workforce in meatpacking plants?
SELEE: Well, here's where you get into the tough part of this politically, which is that all the polls tell us that Americans are really concerned about the border. But they're also quite favorable to immigrants that are already integrated in their communities, right? They depend on them as part of the labor force. These are people whose kids go to school with their kids. I think if we see real mass deportations, it is going to generate a pushback.
INSKEEP: Do you foresee a less dramatic change in the country in the end than what the president-elect would envision?
SELEE: I think so. Most people who are living without documents in this country are pretty well-integrated in American society, especially those that have been here for five, 10, 15, 20 years. And most people have been here that long, so it's very hard to find them. And I suspect, in the end, we're going to see lots of noise. There's going to be a lot of fear among people who are living here without legal documents, but the actual numbers will probably not be enormous.
INSKEEP: Thanks very much for your insights. I appreciate it.
SELEE: Thank you.
MARTÍNEZ: Andrew Selee is president of the Migration Policy Institute. He spoke with our co-host Steve Inskeep. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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