The elected president of the United States, Donald Trump, has advanced plans to carry out the promise of mass deportations, according to CNN based on anonymous sources familiar with the plans. The construction or expansion of large centers where immigrants will be housed before their expulsion is considered. One of the options is to expand county jails; although the location of the new centers has not been specified, they are presumed to be near the border with Mexico, according to CNN.
A large number of beds or mattresses are planned to be acquired to house immigrants during the expulsion process. To carry out the expulsions, Trump will need to make the detention of undocumented individuals mandatory, as many are often released due to the lack of federal resources to hold them. The possibility of issuing an executive order to achieve this is being considered.
The funding for this detention and expulsion plan appears to be the main obstacle, and two avenues are being explored: redistributing funds from other federal agencies or declaring a "national emergency" to obtain funds from the Pentagon, a resource that Trump used in his first term. So far, no member of Trump's team has openly discussed these plans, although it is noted that the elected president was chosen with the mandate to fulfill his campaign promises.
In his first term as president (2016-2020), Trump deported 1.5 million immigrants, a smaller number than the 2.9 million deported in Barack Obama's first term and also less than the 1.9 million in Obama's second term, CNN reports.
