 By Sabine Martin, Des Moines Register
Iowa, IA-Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says she is ready to use “every tool at our disposal,” including deploying the state’s National Guard and law enforcement, to carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for “mass deportations” of illegal immigrants, according to a joint statement by Republican governors.
Trump has signaled he wants to see an overhaul of the country’s immigration system, starting with deporting immigrants living in the country illegally who have violated the law.
“On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out,” Trump said during his campaign’s closing speech at Madison Square Garden.
Reynolds and 25 other Republican governors vowed in the statement to stand behind Trump’s plans to seal the border to illegal immigrants, which they said President Joe Biden’s administration failed to accomplish.
“Republican governors remain fully committed to supporting the Trump Administration’s efforts to deport dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists who are in this country illegally,” the governors said in their statement. “We understand the direct threat these criminal illegal immigrants pose to public safety and our national security, and we will do everything in our power to assist in removing them from our communities.”
Reynolds’ office did not immediately respond to a request for additional information on how the National Guard and law enforcement might be deployed in the deportation effort.
The governor signed a Texas-style immigration law, Senate File 2340, in April that allows Iowa law enforcement to arrest undocumented immigrants for “illegal reentry” into the state. The U.S. Department of Justice sued to block the law from going into effect shortly after its passage in May, arguing that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and a federal judge agreed.
The state is appealing.
The law was met with some pushback from local law enforcement, including from then-Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert, who said his department is “not equipped, funded or staffed” to handle immigration enforcement.
How many people in Iowa would be affected by Trump’s ‘mass deportations’ plan?
Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration would deport more than 11 million undocumented migrants in the U.S., more than 3% of the country’s population, according to Pew Research Center estimates from 2022 data.
An estimated 26% of Iowa’s immigrant population is undocumented, according to the American Immigration Council. The same data shows that 2.4% of Iowa’s workforce is comprised of immigrants living in the state without legal permission.
Trump said recently in an NBC “Meet the Press” interview that he wants to be able to “work something out” with Democrats to help people under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to remain in the U.S. The program allows children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally to be able to live and work in the country.
Trump attempted to remove the program during his first term in the White House.
There are more than 1,300 DACA recipients living in Iowa and Omaha, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ June data.
More:US Rep. Ashley Hinson says she supports a ‘DACA fix’ for kids of undocumented immigrants
How would Trump’s plan for ‘mass deportations’ be carried out?
Trump said in November he will declare a national emergency and call on the military to assist in the promised deportations. His spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told USA Today his administration will use “every federal and state power necessary” to execute the mass deportation program.
Experts say Trump’s plan could face several hurdles. The mass deportations could cost $150 billion to $350 billion for American taxpayers, Axios reported in November.
The U.S. immigration system also has a backlog of nearly 4 million cases and a shortage of immigration judges, which is slowing the process.
Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have stated that Trump’s plan can’t be accomplished “without violating the Constitution and federal laws.”
“While Trump made similar promises in his first term, he was never able to carry out deportations on that scale,” according to a memo from the ACLU on Trump’s plan. “That is because doing so is an enormous project that would entail restrictions on basic freedoms core to American life.”
Trump deported over 1.5 million people during his first term, which is less than deportations reported during former President Barack Obama’s first and second terms.
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