Trump says there's no 'price tag' on his deportation proposal
(The Hill) — President-elect Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday that "there is no price tag" when it comes to his mass deportation plan.
Throughout the campaign cycle, Trump touted a "Day 1 agenda" that oftentimes focused on border and immigration crackdowns, saying at nearly every rally, "On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history.”
Trump has said the mass deportations will target those in the country illegally and especially those with a criminal record. He has also said that he will largely rely on local police departments for assistance, but the program will need coordination with federal agencies and would likely face pushback from some local jurisdictions.
When asked about the finances of his plan during his interview with NBC News, Trump insisted that "there is no price tag."
"It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag," he said, as reported by NBC News.
Trump had also said during the interview that people should still be able to come into the country.
"We obviously have to make the border strong and powerful and, and we have to — at the same time, we want people to come into our country," he said. "And you know, I’m not somebody that says, 'No, you can’t come in.' We want people to come in," NBC News reported that Trump said during the phone interview.
Though Democrats tried to pry Latino voters away from Trump using his remarks about immigrants and a racist joke about Puerto Rico told by a comedian at one of his recent rallies, his performance among Latino voters showed significant support.
A CNN exit poll revealed that Trump won Latino men by 12 points over Vice President Harris — a 35-point swing since 2020, when Biden won the group by 23 points. Harris, however, did comfortably win among Latino women, pulling ahead of Trump by 22 points, but that is a stark difference to the 39-point lead that broke for Biden among the cohort just four years ago.
The poll also showed Harris winning Latino voters over Trump 52 percent to 46 percent, which is a single-digit lead compared to President Biden, who outpaced Trump among the group, with 65 percent support to Trump’s 32 percent in 2020.
According to NBC News, Trump had said that his messaging around immigration partly won him the election.
"They want to have borders, and they like people coming in, but they have to come in with love for the country. They have to come in legally," Trump said, as noted by NBC News.
The president-elect also added that "Democrats are not in line with the thinking of the country," NBC News wrote.
Trump commented on the phone calls he had with both Harris and Biden, calling the calls "very nice" and "very respectful both ways," NBC News reported.