Trump says there is “no price” for his mass deportation plan

President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News on Thursday that one of his first priorities when he takes office in January will be making the border “strong and powerful.” When asked about his campaign promise of mass deportations, Trump said his administration had “no choice” but to implement them.

Trump said he viewed his stunning victory over Vice President Kamala Harris as a mission to “bring common sense to the country.”

“We obviously need to make the border strong and powerful and at the same time we want people to come into our country,” he said. “And you know, I’m not one to say, ‘No, you can’t come in.’ We want people to come in.

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly vowed to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history.” When asked about the cost of his plan, he said: “It’s not about the price. It’s not – really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they are. I will go back to these countries because they are not staying here. There is no price.

It’s unclear how many undocumented immigrants there are in the U.S., but acting ICE Director Patrick J. Lechleitner told NBC News in July that a mass deportation would pose a major logistical and financial challenge. Two former Trump administration officials who worked on immigration during his first term told NBC News that the effort would require cooperation from a number of federal agencies, including the Justice Department and the Pentagon.

Trump’s victory included record gains among Latino voters, whom Democrats had tried to win by pointing to Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and a pro-Trump comedian’s racist joke about Puerto Rico.

In Thursday’s telephone interview, he partly credited his message on immigration as a reason he won the race, saying: “They want to have borders, and they like people to come here, but they have to come here with love for the country.” . They have that.” to enter legally.

Trump also pointed to the diverse coalition of voters he attracted, pointing to gains he made from 2020 among Latino voters, young voters, women and Asian American voters.

“I started to see that there could be a realignment because Democrats don’t agree with the way the country thinks,” the president-elect said. “You can’t defund the police, things like that. They don’t want to give up and don’t work, and people understand that.”

Trump also discussed his phone calls with Harris and President Joe Biden since the election.

“Very nice calls, very respectful both ways,” Trump said, describing the conversations, adding that Harris “talked about the transition and said she wants it to go as smoothly as possible, which of course I agree with.”

In her concession speech Wednesday at Howard University, Harris said she told Trump, “We will assist him and his team in their transition and engage in a peaceful transfer of power.”

Biden addressed the nation in a speech from the White House on Thursday morning, urging voters to “accept the choice the country made in re-electing Trump.”

Trump also said that he and Biden agreed over the phone to have lunch together “very soon.”

He also said he had spoken to “probably” 70 world leaders since Wednesday morning, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in what the president-elect called a “very good conversation.”

Trump also said he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but did not provide details of that conversation.

He added that he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but “I think we will talk.”

During the campaign, Trump promised to end Russia’s war with Ukraine if elected and said in September he would negotiate a deal “that is good for both sides.”