‘Turn Back Now’: Trump Team Starts Mass Deportations

In his victory speech in November, President Donald Trump vowed that his second administration would be characterized by the phrase “Promises made, promises kept.” One of the chief promises of Trump’s 2024 campaign was a mass deportation program, and the president is already keeping that promise. In a Monday night interview, Trump’s “border czar,” former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan, announced that mass deportations would begin Tuesday morning, with an emphasis on locating and expelling illegal immigrants considered a threat to public safety or national security.

“The president’s been clear that, right out of the gate, we’re going to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats,” Homan shared. Referring to several Democratic mayors and governors who have indicated that they will oppose deportations, he continued, “I can’t believe that any elected politician — I don’t care what party you’re from, why would you not want public safety threats out of your communities? That’s your number one responsibility as an elected official is the protection of your communities.”

“ICE is going to start doing their job tomorrow. They haven’t been able to do the job for the last four years, and now they’re going to start enforcing the law like they should be,” Homan added, regarding immigration raids on so-called “sanctuary cities.” He continued, “It’s not a specific sanctuary city. They’re going to do it throughout the country — and we have offices throughout the country — and every ICE office is going to be out there enforcing the law, starting tomorrow morning.”

Moments after Trump’s inauguration, his administration also shut down the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) One app, which had previously allowed immigrants to schedule court appointments at U.S. ports of entry years into the future and, in the meantime, wander the U.S. freely. It is estimated that over one million illegal immigrants entered the U.S. using the CBP One app during former President Joe Biden’s four-year term. The program not only allowed immigrants who were unable to obtain visas entry into the U.S. but provided them with work permits and, in many cases, free transport and airfare. Existing appointments scheduled through CBP One have also been canceled, effective immediately.

Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and National Security Advisor Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner credited with shaping the president’s immigration and border control policy, issued a clear warning to illegal immigrants following the inauguration. “All illegal aliens seeking entry into the United States should turn back now. Anyone entering the United States without authorization faces prosecution and expulsion,” Miller cautioned. The Trump advisor’s warning may refer to the use of Title 42, a policy related to communicable diseases that allows the U.S. to rapidly expel migrants without judicial oversight. During Trump’s first term, Miller was one of the advisors responsible for the administration’s use of Title 42 to secure the southern border.

In response to Trump’s mass deportation program, a coalition of South and Central American nations hosted a conference in Mexico to discuss “protecting the human rights of migrants, preventing abuse and mistreatment, managing regular, safe and orderly migration from a humanitarian perspective.” Participants also discussed “integrating migrant populations and strengthening international cooperation to address the migration phenomenon from its structural and circumstantial causes, and in its full cycle: origin, transit, destination and return.”

Officials representing Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela also signed a document expressing “serious concern” over mass deportations “because of their incompatibility with fundamental human rights principles and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration.” Without actually naming Trump or the U.S., the document continued, “We call on all countries in the hemisphere to conduct themselves in accordance with international law, human rights and their own domestic legislation in the management of human mobility with a humanistic approach, particularly in the face of the threat of mass deportations.”

It is estimated that the Biden administration allowed over 10 million illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. Additional immigrants may have entered illegally undetected. The Biden administration also released numerous immigrants recognized as national security threats and either known or potential terrorists into the U.S. and came under intense scrutiny last year for overspending on programs benefitting illegal immigrants and underspending on hurricane relief programs for Americans.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Border Czar Homan Reports Over 300 Arrests of Illegal Immigrants Wanted for Murder and Child Rape

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


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