Donald Trump Says He'll Deport 2-3 Million People Once In Office
November 13, 2016 / 12:45 PM ET
Bill Chappell - NPR
He'll build a border wall and he'll deport millions of people who are in the
U.S. illegally, President-elect Donald Trump says, promising to keep his
campaign pledges on immigration in his first prolonged interview since winning
the White House.
Saying that his administration will deport "probably 2 million" — and
possibly 3 million — people who are in the country illegally, Trump told 60
Minutes' Lesley Stahl that he wants to secure the border. Trump also seemed
willing to consider the plan some of his fellow Republicans have aired, of
securing some parts of the border with a fence.
The interview with Trump will air on CBS Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET; it also
includes members of his family. The interview was taped Friday at Trump's Fifth
Avenue residence in New York City. It comes after days
of anti-Trump protests in more than a dozen American cities, where
demonstrators have criticized the incoming president's immigration stance.
On another campaign promise, Trump affirmed his plan to repeal
and replace the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare.
But Trump also wants to keep some parts of the plan. For instance, he told
Stahl that he'll maintain coverage for people with pre-existing conditions,
"because it happens to be one of the strongest assets" of the plan.
Trump also said he wants to keep a portion of the law that covers children
living with their parents for an extended period.
As for how the change from one sphere of coverage to another might work,
Trump promised it would be smooth, saying "We're going to do it simultaneously.
It'll be just fine. That's what I do. I do a good job. You know, I mean, I know
how to do this stuff.
He continued, "We're going to repeal it and replace it. And we're not going
to have, like, a two-day period and we're not going to have a two-year period
where there's nothing. It will be repealed and replaced. I mean, you'll know.
And it'll be great health care for much less money."
Here's
what Trump told 60 Minutes when he was asked about undocumented
immigrants in the U.S.:
"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have
criminal records — gang members, drug dealers — we have a lot of these people,
probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million. We're getting them out of our
country or we're going to incarcerate. But we're getting them out of our
country, they're here illegally.
"After the border is secured, and after everything gets normalized, we're
going to make a determination on the people that you're talking about — who
are terrific people, they're terrific people. But we're going to make a
determination... but before we make that determination, Leslie, it's very
important, we're going to secure our border."
For comparison purposes, we'll note that in President Obama's first term, his
administration carried out a record
1.5 million deportations — including more than 400,000 in fiscal year 2012.
The figure declined to 235,413 in fiscal year 2015, and as NPR's
Scott Horsley reported this summer, the Obama administration has shifted its
focus to deporting criminals, people caught near the border, and those who
recently came to the country without securing documents.
As Scott Horsley noted in a review of recent U.S. immigration policy, the
rate of deportations went up under Obama, just as it had under the previous two
presidents. And Trump took notice, back in August.
"What people don't know is that Obama got tremendous numbers of people out of
the country," Trump told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. "Bush, the same thing. Lots of
people were brought out of the country with the existing laws. Well, I'm going
to do the same thing."
The plan for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico is Trump's new facet in
immigration policy. Here's his exchange with Stahl, discussing the idea:
"Are you really going to build a wall?" Stahl asks.
"Yes," Trump says.
"They're talking about a fence in the Republican Congress. Would you accept
a fence?"
"For certain areas I would — but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate.
I'm very good at this, it's called construction."
"So, part wall, part fence?
"Yeah, it could be some fencing."