In Trump’s interview for 60 Minutes [I can’t find a legitimate source for the actual video], which I’m pretty sure was recorded several days before it was aired, we heard that Trump plans to immediately deport 2 to 3 million criminal illegal aliens. Or undocumented workers. Or whatever you’re supposed to call them.
But what does that mean? What is he actually planning to do?
The sinister view is that he will do what he says: Round up 2-3 million Latinos and drive them out of the country in trucks. One can imagine scenes of terror as jack-booted thugs kick down doors and drag fathers away from their crying wives and screaming children. It’s possible that a small percentage of Republican voters may also be imagining exactly that, but I’m going to give them the overall benefit of the doubt.
Because that’s not going to happen. Personally I imagine that he will simply locate any undocumented workers in jail and initiate a deportation using the existing deportation system. I would think he’d focus on the ones who have commited violent crimes. I don’t know how many that is, but I doubt it would add up to 2-3 million. To me, that doesn’t sound much different from what might have happened anyway.
Anyway I predict this is going to end up being his Guantanamo Bay. By which I mean it might be a great idea in theory but carrying it out will get bogged down in details. I can already think of a lot of problems with it and I know nothing about this subject. For example, isn’t it a bad idea to turn violent criminals loose? You can’t just drive them to the border, drop them off, and tell them to have a nice day. The infamous wall isn’t there yet. They’re just going to come back and, you know, commit more violent crimes.
So instead of dropping them off at the border, you’d need to arrange a transfer from a U.S. prison to a Mexican prison. I’m not a lawyer, but I imagine that would be a legal nightmare. Mexico probably doesn’t want an influx of prisoners into their system. They’re going to be all like, “Violent criminals? No thanks. You keep them.”
So there’s probably going to be a big difference between what he says is going to happen and what actually happens, and a lot of spinning after the fact to try to convince people that what he did was actually what he said he was going to do. In other words, there’s going to be a lot of the same thing that always happens when a new president is elected.
