Trump's Thunderous Vow for 2024: 'Biggest Mass Deportation' in U.S. Annals! Nation on Edge as Bold Plans Take Shape

Trump's deportation agenda is not mere rhetoric. According to reports, he intends to leverage local law enforcement, the National Guard, and potentially even the US military to round up and deport millions of undocumented migrants currently residing across the nation. This proposed dragnet-style sweep of removal operations draws eerie parallels to the controversial "Operation Wetback" of 1954 under President Dwight Eisenhower, which expelled over 1 million Mexican migrants.

While the Trump 2024 campaign has provided few concrete details on the logistics and resources needed for such a gargantuan undertaking, they have proffered a staggering estimate of "nearly 20 million" illegal migrants currently present in the United States--a figure that dwarfs the official Census Bureau estimate of 11 million.

Eric Ruark, director of research at NumbersUSA, a group favoring lower immigration levels, lends credence to Trump's 20 million figure, citing the record-breaking surge of migrant entries under the Biden administration as a plausible explanation. "There's probably between 15 and 20 million, given the number of people we've seen coming over," Ruark asserted.

Former top immigration officials who served under Trump have shed light on the immense challenges and requirements involved in executing mass deportations on such an unprecedented scale. Tom Homan, former acting ICE director, said bluntly: "A lot of that is going to be up to Congress... We need officers, we need detention beds, we need transportation contracts... because [we would have] more flights heading out of the country and more bus removals down to the border."

Homan made clear that while criminal aliens and national security threats would be prioritized initially, ultimately "no one is off the table. If you're in this country illegally... then we'll remove you." Meanwhile, Jon Feere, Trump's former ICE chief of staff, envisions "city-wide operations where officers from different parts of the country are brought in to conduct work site investigations and make arrests within the course of weeks within in any given jurisdiction."

--Both former officials emphasize that a "whole government approach" involving numerous federal agencies--from Homeland Security and the State Department to Health and Human Services--would be required to facilitate such an audacious deportation drive. Feere argues that the State Department could leverage visa sanctions against uncooperative nations refusing to accept deportees, stating bluntly: "When a country hears that the United States will not allow its residents in if they don't take their people back, those countries quickly cooperate."

Overcoming resistance from sanctuary cities that flout federal immigration laws also looms as a daunting challenge. "ICE would prefer that all states and cities cooperate with federal law enforcement," Feere warned. "But those that choose not to are going to see an increase in operations within their communities. ICE will have no choice but to conduct large operations."

While Trump's deportation vow galvanizes his base of supporters who backed his previous hardline immigration policies, it will undoubtedly provoke intense backlash from immigrant advocates and critics who decry such plans as draconian overreach--not to mention the immense financial costs and logistical hurdles involved in attempting to locate, detain, and deport potentially 20 million people.

Yet Trump remains defiant, declaring to TIME: "You have to do what you have to do to stop crime and to stop what's taking place at the border." Whether such a sweeping forced removal campaign is feasible or wise remains hotly contested, but the former president seems determined to make it a defining issue of his 2024 campaign if elected.