The United States is rapidly deporting illegal immigrants

2025-01-26 22:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

US authorities are now arresting hundreds of undocumented immigrants a day and sending them to their countries of origin, fulfilling President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign promise to deport immigrants who have entered the United States illegally.

"We will enforce immigration laws ," Vice President JD Vance told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

According to data compiled by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and the White House, during the first days of Mr. Trump's new administration, more than 1,000 immigrants were arrested and hundreds were repatriated to other countries, including Guatemala.

"It's going very well. We're taking out the bad, tough criminals ," Mr. Trump told reporters Friday during a trip to North Carolina to see recovery efforts after flooding from Hurricane Helene.

Without presenting evidence, he said that "these are murderers. These are the worst possible people. As bad as you've ever seen. These are the ones we're taking out first."

The White House released a photo of handcuffed immigrants boarding a C-17 military transport plane for flights out of the United States.

Tom Homan, who is expected to be the new national immigration chief, told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that "there will be more arrests nationally."

Mr. Trump has authorized the deployment of 1,500 military troops to the US-Mexico border, and Mr. Homan said that "you'll see the numbers go up. They're there to secure the border."

He said that the US is deporting as many detainees "as they can", initially targeting those who have been convicted of crimes in the US and will then continue with the detention and deportation of those whose asylum requests have been rejected.

"We're in the early stages ," Mr. Homan said. "It's not right to break the laws of this country ," he stressed. He called on undocumented immigrants, even those who have not been ordered to leave the United States, to voluntarily return to their countries.

A vast number of about 11 million undocumented immigrants are believed to be living in the United States, who most officials believe will be impossible to deport.

"We'll do what we can with the money we have," Mr. Homan said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of President Trump, called on his Republican colleagues in Congress to authorize more spending for deportation efforts.

"We haven't given Mr. Trump's team resources," Mr. Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press." He said Mr. Homan "is going to have to hire more [immigration] agents. He's going to have to finish the [border] wall [with Mexico]. And to do that, it's going to take 41,000 detention beds, to 150,000 detention beds."

"So to my Republican colleagues, especially in the House [of Representatives], we need to give Tom Homan the money now to implement the plan. And without Congressional funding, this cannot happen," Mr. Graham said.

President Trump's administration has stopped appointments for migrants waiting in Mexico to seek asylum through a mobile phone app, but Mr. Trump's executive orders on immigration are facing legal challenges.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's executive order redefining birthright citizenship./VOA