In his first post-election interview, President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Dec. 8 that his administration would deport whole households, together with American youngsters, “in the event that they wish to be with their dad and mom.”
“I don’t wish to separate households,” Trump mentioned in an interview on NBC Information’ Meet the Press. “So the one option to not separate households is to maintain them collectively and ship all of them again.”
Requested whether or not Trump would reinstate the so-called “zero tolerance” coverage on the border, which led to the separation of migrant youngsters from their dad and mom, the Republican mentioned it could all rely “on the household.”
Dreamers
“If they arrive right here illegally, however their household is right here legally, then the household has a alternative. The one who got here right here illegally can go away, or they’ll all go away collectively,” insisted the president-elect, who takes workplace on January 20, 2025.
In his interview with NBC Information, Trump additionally spoke about stripping birthright citizenship from youngsters of undocumented immigrants, in addition to an intention to have interaction with Democrats to assist the “Dreamers.”
“We now have to do one thing concerning the Dreamers as a result of these are folks which have been introduced right here at a really younger age,” he mentioned. “Many of those are middle-aged folks now. They don’t even converse the language of their nation.”
‘Harmful and Merciless’
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, mentioned Trump’s place on deportations is “harmful” and “merciless.”
“Trump’s newest statements reveal a imaginative and prescient for America that’s as harmful as it’s merciless,” she mentioned. “Rooted in concern, division, and an effort to dehumanize hundreds of thousands of immigrants, his agenda is a direct assault on the values which have lengthy outlined America: compassion and inclusion. By promising to hold out the biggest mass deportation in historical past, Trump isn’t just focusing on immigrant communities, he’s attacking the very cloth of the nation.”
Fixed Concern
She mentioned Trump’s deportation plan is making a way forward for “fixed concern” amongst immigrant households.
“As we strategy Trump’s second time period, we should stay united in rejecting his white supremacist agenda,” Awawdeh mentioned. “We can not enable this imaginative and prescient of cruelty, exclusion and concern to turn out to be our actuality.