Morning Edition takes a look at the promises President-elect Donald Trump said he would keep during his second term. NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviews immigration policy expert Andrew Selee about Trump’s promise to deport millions of immigrants.

What Trump said about deporting immigrants

During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised, “On day one, I will launch the largest criminal deportation program in the history of America.” » He referred to “Operation Wetback” of 1954. an effort ordered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Government estimates show that more than a million immigrants, mostly Mexicans, and some U.S. citizens have been arrested. The program takes its official name from a racist term for Mexicans who swam or waded across the Rio Grande.

He also said he would use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to hasten the deportation of undocumented migrants from the United States and “dismantle all criminal migrant networks operating on American soil” during a campaign rally on October 25.

Trump could start by trying to expel new arrivals and expand deportation guidelines

Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, said Trump’s mass deportation plan could begin with expelling hundreds of thousands of new arrivals admitted under programs instituted by President Biden.

“The first thing we know he will almost certainly do is cancel humanitarian parole for people who have benefited from it, people who have gone through CBP One, this app that people use to make appointments to cross the border,” Selee said.

He also highlighted the possibility that Trump would go after people in temporary protected status, a limited status offered to people displaced from their home countries due to extreme circumstances, and people admitted under temporary protection status. a program offered to Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.

Selee also said Trump could change deportation guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement so the agency can more freely arrest and subject undocumented immigrants to deportation proceedings.

“That’s something that changed under the Biden administration, where they were primarily going after people with criminal records or those who posed a threat to national security,” Selee said.

Selee also says Trump has talked about expanding detention centers, “But whether or not he will be able to use military bases or other federal facilities and whether he will try to use the military itself , and that would require going back to the (Alien) Act of 1798.”

Trump could argue for using this more than 200-year-old law to override due process and justify the use of military support to arrest and detain people without legal status.

Selee added that people living in Republican-controlled states are much more likely to be subject to enforcement actions.

“We saw it under the last Trump administration. Enforcement efforts were very effective against people who are here illegally in red states because local law enforcement was willing to collaborate,” Selee said .

He added that while blue state law enforcement agencies have not outright refused to cooperate, they have not devoted large amounts of resources to working with law enforcement agencies on immigration.

What Trump’s team is saying

NPR asked the Trump transition team if the president-elect had more specific details on how his plan for mass deportations would begin. Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt responded with the following statement:

“The American people re-elected President Trump with a large majority, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will keep them.”

Trump’s appointments demonstrate the seriousness of his coercive measures

This week, Trump announced he would do Tom Homan its “border czar” overseeing the northern and southern borders of the United States. Homan led ICE on an interim basis for about a year and a half during his first term. Border czar is not an official cabinet position and it is unclear what role Homan would play.

Before the election, Homan said enforcement would focus on immigrants who pose “threats to public safety and national security first.” He also indicated that more searches of workplaces could take place.

A CBS reporter Homan asked during an interview in October whether family separations could be avoided during mass expulsions, particularly in the case of U.S. citizen children whose parents are undocumented. Homan responded by saying, “Families can be deported together.”

Trump also announced the expected return of Stephen Millerthe outright restrictiveness of immigration which is considered the architect of Travel ban for Muslims and the controversial “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of children from their parents at the southern border. The reunification of some 1,400 children with their families has not been confirmed in April this year.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was also tapped to lead internal securitythe firm that oversees immigration benefits and their enforcement. Noem has deployed National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border several times in recent years.