One of the biggest challenges facing President-elect Donald Trump when he launches his promised plan for mass deportations is forcing countries around the world to accept immigrants deported from the United States.
So far, a few details are known about the operation that would be involved, according to statements made by Tom Homan, nominated by Trump to occupy the position of border 'czar' in charge of the gigantic operation.
Se ha sabido, por ejemplo, que participarán agentes federales de varias agencias involucradas en el proceso migratorio, agentes de policía locales (estatal, condal y municipal) y tropas del Ejército, aunque estos últimos en tareas de apoyo a las fuerzas federales de inmigración. En esas tareas figuran el traslado de inmigrantes arrestados, levantar campamentos temporales de detenidos y asuntos relacionados con la seguridad en las fronteras.
Pero hay dos preguntas que, a casi tres semanas de las elecciones, siguen dando vueltas sin que haya detalles más profundos por parte de alguno de los nominados hasta ahora por Trump para integrar su gabinete: el propio Homan, Stephen Miller, quien ocupará el cargo de subdirector de política de la Casa Blanca, y Russell Vought, quien comandará la Oficina de Administración y Presupuesto.
Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Homan have all revealed that between 1 and 1.5 million foreigners with criminal records and deportation orders in absentia will be deported starting on day one of the new administration and during the first year.
They have also mentioned the possible cancellation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), humanitarian parole (CHNV), and the CBP One mobile app.
The approximate total number of all these benefits, however, exceeds the projections issued so far:
- Deportation orders issued: Between fiscal years 2015 and 2024, the Immigration Court (EOIR) has issued more than 928,000 deportation orders in absentia, including for unaccompanied minors (or UACs).
- Young people protected by DACA: some 560,000 dreamers are protected from deportation under DACA
- People with 'humanitarian parole': until the end of October 2024, 531,620 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans arrived legally and obtained conditional release under the parole processes ('humanitarian parole')
- People with CBP One appointments: Since the CBP One program was introduced in January 2023, more than 860,000 people have managed to schedule appointments to appear at ports of entry by the end of October 2024. The main beneficiaries are from Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, and Haiti.
In total, the population is approximately 2,879,620, almost double the projections established so far. Asked if the federal government has the capacity to respond to the search and arrest operations for all these foreigners, Homan said that he will not know about the infrastructure, personnel and budget resources until the new administration takes office on January 20, 2025.
A key tool for deporting foreigners is in the spotlight
A mass deportation campaign would require hundreds of billions of additional dollars, which Congress has not yet approved.
Y los fondos de que dispone actualmente el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS en inglés) —unos $176.18 mil millones de dólares en el año fiscal 2024— evidencian que el gobierno federal no tiene la suficiente capacidad de respuesta para lidiar con la crisis migratoria que acorrala al gobierno de Joe Biden.
Some examples. When Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021, he inherited 1.2 million cases backlogged in the Immigration Court from the Trump administration, according to data from the Transactional Records Access and Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
In October 2024, almost four years later, the number of cases exceeds 3.7 million cases and, on average, the courts take between 4 and 6 years to resolve a case, mainly asylum cases.
Meanwhile, the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has more than 9.2 million accumulated cases as of June 30, 2024, according to the federal agency's database.
Y la capacidad máxima de camas diarias en la Oficina de Inmigración y aduanas (ICE en inglés), encargada de las deportaciones, mantuvo a 38,863 personas en detención según datos actualizados al 3 de noviembre de 2024 por el TRAC. Los centros con mayor cantidad de inmigrantes privados de libertad se localizan en Texas, Louisiana y California.
The other question is what the new administration will do to massively deport foreigners with criminal records, with deportation orders in absentia, and the other groups included in the list (beneficiaries of DACA, TPS, humanitarian parole, and CBP One who are affected). Among them are immigrants from countries that do not accept their citizens deported by the United States, including Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Other countries identified by ICE as “recalcitrant” refuse or do not cooperate in accepting the return of nationals deported from the United States, according to a Univision News report published in 2017.
The list of countries includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Cape Verde, China, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Saint Lucia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia and Zimbabwe. There is "tense cooperation" with 62 other nations, the federal agency said.
Para enfrentar este complejo escenario, que puede echar por tierra el plan de deportaciones masivas de Trump, el Proyecto 2025 recomienda una poderosa herramienta que le otorga al Ejecutivo el poder necesario para torcer brazos e imponer su política migratoria de ‘tolerancia cero’ a cualquier precio: invocar y utilizar la Sección 243(d) de la Ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad (INA).
What Project 2025 says about using a law to speed up deportations
En la página 211 del Proyecto 2025, en el capítulo relacionado con las reformas al Departamento de Estado, los autores del documento conservador citan la Sección 243(d) de la INA para hacer frente a una escalada de deportaciones masivas.
The document reads as follows:
“Section 243(d), Visa Sanctions. The visa sanctions under Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), enacted into law to encourage countries to accept the return of any national ordered deported from the United States, must be promptly and fully implemented. Recalcitrant countries that do not accept their returned nationals will risk suspension of the issuance of all immigrant visas, all nonimmigrant visas, or all visas.”
“These country-specific sanctions should remain in place until the sanctioned country agrees to the return of all of its nationals awaiting deportation and formally commits to accepting its nationals on a regular basis in the future.”
“La implementación de esta ley de manera estricta demostrará a la comunidad internacional una falta de seriedad hasta ahora que indica que otras naciones deben respetar las leyes de inmigración de Estados Unidos y trabajar con las autoridades federales para aceptar a los nacionales que regresan o perderán el acceso a los Estados Unidos”.
De aplicarse la Sección 243(d) de la INA, los efectos del impacto serían severos y forzaría a los países “recalcitrantes”, como los llama ICE, a ceder y aceptar a sus ciudadanos deportados a cambio de no perder los visados para hacer negocios o poder entrar al país bajo algunas de las más de 65 categorías de visas existentes.
