Four months ago, Thomas Homanformer director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Donald Trump, took the stage at the Republican National Convention to issue a warning to immigrants living in the country illegally.

“As someone who has spent 34 years deporting illegal aliens, I have a message for the millions of illegal aliens that President Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law,” he said. declared. said. “You better start packing now.” »

Less than a week after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, the Republican president-elect announced he plans to appoint Homan as his “border czar,” one of several signs that Trump will act quickly and decisive way to keep his electoral promise to secure the border and fight against illegal immigration.

Trump, who has made mass deportations a centerpiece of his 2024 election campaign, is also expected to name another longtime ally and immigration hardliner, Stephen Miller, as deputy chief of staff for of politics.

Homan and Miller are just two of the planned nominations that show Trump is preparing to deliver on key agendas of his campaign. On Monday, he also named former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Miller, a former speechwriter and Trump campaign adviser who worked closely with the former president in the White House during Trump’s first term, was a key architect of “tolerance” immigration policies zero” of Trump, notably a travel ban which reduced the number of refugees accepted into the United States from majority-Muslim countries and the separation of migrant children from their parents.

“Trump is clearly delivering the message that he intends to do what he said he would do,” said Andrew Arthur, a researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan group that supports immigration restrictions. immigration.

During his campaign, Trump promised to deport millions of immigrants living illegally in the United Statesleading from day one “the largest deportation operation in American history.” And in his first interview after his victory last week, the former president told NBC that he had pledged to carry out a massive roundup of undocumented immigrants, whatever the cost.

“It’s not about price,” Trump said. “That’s not the case. In reality, we have no choice when people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries. And now they’re going to go back to these countries because they’re not staying here. »

But even if Trump can order a crackdown on undocumented immigrants as soon as he becomes president, few experts expect his administration to immediately deport the millions of people believed to be in the United States illegally. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 11 million immigrants were living in the country illegally in 2022 and more than 2 million people have entered the country illegally since then.

The American Immigration Council, a nonprofit advocacy group, has estimated that illegally deporting everyone in the United States would cost at least $315 billion and take at least a decade.

Still, Trump’s crackdown on immigrants risks creating chaos across the country and economic disruption in many industries that rely on immigrants — particularly in California, home to about 1.8 million immigrants without legal status. In Los Angeles County, a recent USC Dornsife report found that more than a third of residents are immigrants and about 8 percent are undocumented immigrants.

“This time around, the Trump administration is going to be much better prepared,” said Masih Fouladi, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center. “If we thought they acted quickly in 2017, with the Muslim ban a week after Trump’s inauguration, it’s going to be even faster this time. … Trump is going to stay true to his word, promoting mass deportations from day one, and we also need to work with that kind of urgency to make sure we protect our communities.”

Immigrants living in California and other blue states already enjoy protections that immigrants from red states do not. For example, California already has a series of policies in place that limit local agencies’ cooperation with federal immigration officials.

But Fouladi said immigrants and their supporters must work immediately with state and national partners to prevent harm to immigrants and their families. He urged the state to strengthen the protections of the California Values ​​Act and invest in rapid response networks and legal services for immigrants facing deportation.

Former White House aide Stephen Miller speaks at an October 2024 campaign rally for Donald Trump in State College, Pennsylvania.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

“There are a lot of mixed families in California, where some parents may be undocumented, but the children are U.S. citizens,” Fouladi said. “Plans to care for these families should be a top priority for state lawmakers, the governor and local mayors. »

Fouladi said California leaders have already taken steps to defend immigrants, but they are not working with the same urgency as the Trump administration.

Although Trump claimed that “many” of the migrants who entered the United States illegally over the past three and a half years “are murderers, drug dealers, people out of prisons,” research shows that people living in the United States illegally are arrested at significantly lower rates for violent, drug, and property crimes than native-born Americans.

Fouladi said he hopes top leaders in California’s agriculture, industry and chambers of commerce will highlight the vital role immigrants have played in boosting the state’s economy.

“We need an emergency before Trump takes office,” Fouladi said. “I think this time around, people believe he’s going to promote policies that deport individuals, but I just don’t think they appreciate the scope and scale of it.”

When Trump announced his agenda on Sunday Social truth that he would make Homan “border czar”, he also said that Homan would be responsible for “all expulsions of illegal aliens to their countries of origin”.

In July, according to the Semafor information site, Homan told a panel on immigration policy at a conservative conference: “I will lead the greatest deportation force this country has ever seen.” »

On Monday, Olivia Troye, a former White House national security official under Trump, warned that Homan was a divisive figure.

When deadly wildfires ravaged Northern California in 2017, she noted: Homan spread false statements that an undocumented immigrant started them and accused the Sonoma County Sheriff of so-called sanctuary policies that “left their community vulnerable to dangerous individuals and preventable crimes.”

“The immigrant had NOTHING to do with the wildfires. » Troye posted on X. “Those of us who worked at DHS and were actually engaged in homeland security watched this in horror internally as this unfolded. Remember this in the future when things like this happen again.

Miller said a Trump administration could deploy the U.S. military and National Guard troops to help deport immigrants, setting the stage for clashes between the federal government and local jurisdictions that pose as cities and towns. sanctuary states.

“If President Trump is re-elected, the border will be closed, the military will be deployed, the National Guard will be activated and illegal immigrants will return home,” Miller said. said conservative podcast host Charlie Kirk This year.

Last month, Trump told a campaign rally that he would invoke the Extraterrestrial Enemies Acta rarely used 1798 law to deport anyone who is not legally in the country. But legal experts believe that such a policy is likely to continue for a long time. legal battles.

Arthur said he expected the Trump administration to prioritize completing its southern border wall and reinstate its “Remain in Mexico” policy that required people to stay in Mexico after requesting l asylum in the United States – actions that would deter migrants from trying to enter. the country.

To finance the completion of the border wall, Arthur expected Trump to declare a border emergency, call in military means, or approach Congress for a special supplemental appropriation. But even then, Arthur said, it would be impractical to expect immediate results.

“We’re not going to have a fence that stretches from Brownsville to Imperial Beach, but you’re certainly going to fill in the gaps in key areas of Arizona, California and Texas,” he said.

At the same time, Arthur said, the Trump administration would prioritize returning migrants who committed serious crimes considered to pose a threat or those who entered illegally after November 2020.

When asked whether law-abiding undocumented immigrants should fear deportation if law enforcement stops them during a traffic stop, Arthur said, “I’m not going to say they should not worry.

“If they are encountered, they will be taken into custody,” he said. “But are you going to, all of a sudden, go out and try to arrest 13 to 15 million people? It’s a question of resources, and it’s probably not feasible.