Immigration has been a major issue of the presidential campaign. Former President Donald Trump has promised that if elected, he will conduct mass deportations.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The presidential campaign has included a lot of distraction and noise, but it’s given some clarity on the candidates’ views of one big issue.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That issue is immigration. Former President Trump has promised that if elected, he will deport millions of people.
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DONALD TRUMP: On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out.
INSKEEP: NPR immigration correspondent Jasmine Garsd has been asking how that would work based on what the candidates have said. Jasmine, good morning.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK. More than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. How has the former president – say he would get them out?
GARSD: Well, not a lot of specifics. He said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the president to detain and deport noncitizens from an enemy nation during wartime. He also has said he would use local police, and Trump and his allies have talked about invoking the Insurrection Act and deploying troops to the southwest border.
INSKEEP: I was watching his speech Sunday from Madison Square Garden, where he said some of these things, and it made me wonder how feasible it all is.
GARSD: Well, first of all, Congress would need to allocate massive amounts of money to hire new agents, increase facilities. And Trump hasn’t been specific about how he’d do that. And also, civil rights groups are prepared to challenge all this. I mean, consider the Alien Enemies Act. We are not at war with countries that migrants primarily come from.
INSKEEP: OK. So you can see the legal challenges coming if you use these various laws as your authority. The next question is whether the president can commandeer local law enforcement or rely on their cooperation, as it were.
GARSD: So partnerships between certain police departments and immigration authorities already do exist for detaining and holding immigrants. And those partnerships, by the way, have been accused of enabling racial profiling and of breaking community trust. Now, legally, no, the president can’t force a police department to collaborate with immigration enforcement. In fact, during his presidency, Trump tried, and it was deemed unconstitutional.
INSKEEP: This is an experience that lots of presidents have. They show up in the most powerful office in the world and find out the are limits to their power, so long as the Constitution holds. So are his hands, to some extent, tied?
GARSD: Kind of. I think it’s really important to look at what’s happening on a state level. In the last few years, we’ve seen states like Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona now attempting to pass their own immigration enforcement laws. Now, what legal scholars have told me is that they expect that under a Trump presidency, we would see places that already participate in immigration enforcement really ramping it up and the Justice Department under Trump giving them a green light.
INSKEEP: Oh, interesting. So in states that are politically aligned with Trump, he could change considerably, but other states, maybe a little bit less. Let’s talk now about Harris’ approach to immigration. Of course, it’s the Biden-Harris administration that’s under pressure for its performance here, so how is her approach changing, if at all?
GARSD: So 60% of voters say immigration is a major concern. The Biden-Harris administration has been criticized by the Trump campaign for being weak on immigration. And what we’ve seen is Democrats veering more conservative, talking less about paths to legalization and much more on border security, also pushing a bipartisan bill from earlier this year, saying that, if elected, she will sign that into law.
INSKEEP: And I guess in her big speech last night, Harris did talk about a path to legalization but also talked about deporting people who need to be deported. Jasmine, thanks so much.
MARTIN: Thank you.
INSKEEP: NPR’s Jasmine Garsd.
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