By Patricia Lopez*

US President-elect Donald Trump is moving aggressively on the issue of mass deportations, placing two of the most powerful anti-immigration voices in his circle in key positions.

Their choice sets the administration on a course for the toughest possible stance on Trump’s plan: The great reduction in the number of immigrants in the USA. What is coming will have a bad turn.

Tom Holmes, the former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Trump’s first term as president, will be the new “czar” of the border. Stephen Miller, the architect of brutal policies like the Muslim travel ban and the family separation policy that separated children from their parents, is returning to an even more powerful role, that of White House deputy chief of staff.

Together, these two faces they are expected to conduct a sweep operation immediatelywhich as Miller has said, will start from the day of the inauguration.

What could be more fitting for the start of Trump’s second term than a grand inauguration set against the backdrop of border agents turning away immigrants?

Meanwhile, Trump stalwart South Dakota Gov. Christy Noem has been announced as the pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Noem, who was reportedly on Trump’s list of potential vice-presidential picks until she went public with the shooting and killing of her dog, has remained a staunch supporter of the Republican US president-elect. She has little to no experience on border issues, except for a small demonstration of wall construction in May, when she sent her state’s National Guard troops to the Texas border with Mexico.

In a foretaste of developments to come, Homan delivered a remarkably blunt message on 60 Minutes nine days before the election. Asked whether deportations could avoid family separation, he replied: “Families can be deported together”. In other words, he means undocumented parents and their American-born children. Doing so is almost certain to be challenged in courtrooms. Still, given the growing number of judges Trump has appointed and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, any outcome is unpredictable.

Even before Trump’s victory, Homan promised to “organise the largest deportation operation this country has ever experienced”. And he knows how to do it. He served under President Barack Obama as head of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, overseeing more than 920,000 deportations in three years. In 2015, Obama presented him with a presidential award.

Under Trump’s previous presidency, Homan carried out the family separation policy that Miller helped create. This is an extremely harsh policy that led to the separation of 5,500 children from their parents at the US-Mexico border in 2018. As of April 2024, more than 1,400 minors had still not been reunited with their parents.

Illegal immigration has preoccupied US presidents for decades. Most were divided because they found real value in the dynamism and renewal that immigrants bring, but they were also forced to impose limits.

President Bill Clinton deported 12 million undocumented immigrants during his two terms, including more than 5 million deportations in his last three years in office. President George W. Bush deported 10 million people over eight years.

Even Obama deported 5.2 million people in his two terms. Unlike Clinton and Bush, who relied more on informal “returns” that sent immigrants back to the border, Obama focused on returns based on court orders and penalties for re-entry. By focusing on recent arrivals and serious criminals, Obama has deported far more undocumented immigrants than any of his predecessors through these means.

But no one has demonized immigrants the way Trump has, making them scapegoats for every social problem. His predecessors followed the rule of law as a matter of course. These are important distinctions, especially now, because Trump and the toxic duo of Homan and Miller are already looking for every possible way to curb both illegal and legal immigration.

Homan has also stated that he intends to bring back an offensive tactic that had disappeared: Large-scale raids on workplaces. Homan said the raids would be conducted in a “humane” manner. I witnessed several raids as an immigration reporter in Southern California years ago, and they were anything but humane. What they do – very effectively – is to create chaos and fear in immigrant communities, cause serious labor disruptions for employers – often smaller businesses, contractors and farmers – and have devastating consequences.

In an interview on Fox News, Fox and Friends on Monday, Homan had a message for Democratic governors who have the audacity to say they will protect their states. “If you’re not going to help us, get out of the way”Homan said characteristically. “We may have to double the agents we send”he said, but “we will do the work”.

Miller has expressed the view that the National Guard should be used to assist in arrests and law enforcement. To speed up the deportations, Trump has talked about using a law usually reserved for wartime and last used to remove Japanese Americans to concentration camps during World War II. He has also threatened to withhold federal funds from cities that refuse to cooperate with deportations.

Ironically, one of the Trump administration’s first targets may be a group of immigrants who are here legally. More than 530,000 immigrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are in the US under a special program. These four countries were previously among the main drivers of illegal immigration in recent years. The program was created by President Joe Biden in 2022 and came under the spotlight during the election campaign amid fake news about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, allegedly “they ate other residents’ pets”. Trump has said he considers the program illegal. (Note that the program is not illegal and has been upheld by a federal court).

Biden said in October that he would not renew the status of these immigrants, leaving them with few legal options under the new Trump administration. Dismantling the program and deporting those under its protection would bring Trump halfway to his goal of deporting 1 million immigrants. These immigrants, of course, work and contribute to their communities. But none of that matters to this administration, which seeks only to incite hatred against those Trump has called “parasites” and has said that “they are poisoning this country”.

Polls show that a majority of Americans are convinced that immigration is out of control and is affecting too many parts of their lives. But are they prepared for the impact and cruelty this administration will unleash as it implements its vision of an America “only for Americans”?

The little secret of our economy is that it depends on the cheap labor provided by undocumented immigrants. Up to 1/5 of construction workers are undocumented, as are 1/4 of all agricultural workers. Undocumented immigrants work in catering, cleaning and retail. But they represent more than a faceless mob of low-wage workers. They live among us as neighbors, friends and colleagues. They go to church, build communities and have dreams for themselves and their children.

Once they leave the country, we may realize that we need them more than we thought.

*Patricia Lopez is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She is a former member of the editorial team at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she also worked as a senior political editor and reporter.