What Trump Means For: Immigration
Mass deportations, kids in cages, ending refugee admissions, and no more birthright citizenship.
Welcome to “What Trump Means For,” a multi-part series I’ll be publishing over the next several weeks as the 2024 election creeps closer. I’ll break down what Donald Trump and his current and probable future teams have said about how they will govern and exactly what they will do while in office. If Trump wins, he may not accomplish everything he pledges to do. But he will no doubt do a lot — and it’s worth taking seriously what he says and plans.
Donald Trump is not exactly a policy wonk. For the most part, he seems uninterested in governing. In 2020 the party he led didn’t bother to release a platform. In 2024, the platform is a series of brief bullet points. He routinely changes his positions on issues, and is remarkably ill-versed in what should be basic policy questions. It’s not a mystery as to why: Donald Trump didn’t get into politics to govern; he got into politics to enjoy unfettered power, which he believed would bring him admiration and respect. But there are three issues he does actually seem to care about: Immigration, crime, and the economy. And his immigration plans are among the most dangerous.
We saw a little preview of Trumpian immigration policy during his first term, with the Muslim ban and the family separation policy. But we should also be clear that these plans were nowhere near as expansive as Trump wanted them to be; he was hemmed in by the courts, and by his own team of incompetents. He does not plan on making the latter mistake again, and he spent his first term stacking the federal bench with less-than-qualified far-right judges who he believes will affirm his vision. Here is some of what Trump will try to do on immigration if he wins in November:
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