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By John Ogunsemore
Donald Trump will today be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.
Trump, who first served as president from 2017 to 2021, was re-elected for a second term in November 2024 on the back of strong anti-migration rhetoric.
The 78-year-old has promised to engage in mass deportation of illegal aliens, and he appointed hardliner Tom Homan as Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to oversee this policy push.
Below are five facts about the mass deportations:
1. The mass deportations will be sweeping. Border czar, Homan disclosed in an interview with Fox News last Friday that large-scale “targeted enforcement operations” would begin as early as Tuesday, just one day after Trump’s inauguration.
Although he did not divulge details, he said the focus would be on the “worst first, public safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they got a problem”.
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2. President Trump is expected to sign a flurry of executive orders possibly as early as his first day in office to speed up the mass deportation process.
During a campaign tour in Iowa last September, Trump said, “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
3. Final deportation orders will be scrupulously executed, Homan told Reuters in October. He said, “At the end of that due process, when they get ordered removed, those orders have to be executed or what the hell are we doing?
“If those final orders don’t mean anything, then shut down immigration court.”
4. With about 11 million estimated illegal immigrants in the US, the Trump administration’s plan to round up and detain them prior to deportation could face significant legal and logistical hurdles, especially how to house the detainees before their removal from the country.
5. Many mayors and community organisers across cities in the United States are preparing to help immigrants without legal status with Know Your Rights Trainings or spearheading rapid response teams.
Chicago’s deputy mayor for immigrant, Beatriz Ponce de León confirmed the city’s leaders have met with departments and sister agencies, such as the police and public school district, to detail existing city policies.
