The mass deportation idea fragments into a confused array of proposals, some aimed at all unauthorized persons, and some aimed only at persons who are encountered by law enforcement, which can be a simple as a traffic stop. At some early date, this will blow up. This is why I predict that the Trump administration will take another path, which is to terminate DACA and many temporary visas issued by the Biden administration.
From the Associated Press via the Boston Globe:
“We would be finding people who are in violation of this law, and we would be sort of hand-delivering them to the nearest port of deportation so that they could be removed in a safe and orderly fashion,” said Missouri state Sen. Curtis Trent, who is sponsoring one of the proposals. Trent’s bill would empower local law officers to arrest people for a new state crime of “improper entry by an alien,” punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and a court-ordered ride to the U.S. border.
A separate bill by Missouri state Sen.-elect David Gregory would offer a $1,000 reward to informants who tip off police about people in the country illegally and allow private bounty hunters to find and detain them.
Missouri’s Republican Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe hasn’t endorsed a specific legislative plan after campaigning against illegal immigration and the scourge of fentanyl smuggled across the U.S. border. But he told The Associated Press: “If they’re here illegally, it definitely should trigger something more than it does now.”
Immigrant advocacy groups already are raising alarm about some state proposals. Missouri’s proposed bounty system would “create absolute chaos and division,” said Ashley DeAzevedo, president of American Families United, which advocates for U.S. citizens married to foreign nationals.
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Following Texas’ lead, Republican-led legislatures in Iowa, Louisiana and Oklahoma passed measures allowing law officers to arrest people who are in the U.S. illegally. Shortly after Trump’s election, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he was working on a plan to deport some of the more than 500 immigrants currently in Oklahoma prisons who are not legal citizens.