Former President Donald Trump on Friday predicted he’d break records for the number of people deported from the United States if he were elected for a second term. 

Trump has vowed to launch the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. Tom Homan, who led immigration enforcement during the first year-and-a-half of the Trump administration as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, proudly pitched the idea at the Republican National Convention this summer, telling undocumented immigrants to start packing.

“Let me tell you what it’s not going to be first,” he told 60 Minutes of the mass deportation plan. “It’s not going to be a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not going to be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Plans for mass deportation

There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, about 3% of the population. Nearly 80% of them have lived in the country for a decade or more, according to estimates by the Department of Homeland Security.

Homan, who Trump has said would join his administration if he wins a second term, said a mass deportation operation would be based on targeted arrests. 

“We’ll know who we’re going to arrest, where we’re most likely to find them based on numerous investigative processes,” he said.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has said it would be reasonable to deport a million people a year. And Trump’s top immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year that deportees would be removed from the country in a massive military air operation.

“You grab illegal immigrants and then you move them to the staging ground and that’s where the planes are waiting for federal law enforcement to then move those illegals home,” Miller said at the conference. “You deputize the National Guard to carry out immigration enforcement.”

Homan said he doesn’t use the term “raids,” but immigration enforcement operations at worksites would be needed. 

“If I’m in charge of this, my priorities are public safety threats and national security threats first,” he said.

Others would follow for removals, he said. During a targeted enforcement operation, for instance, if an undocumented grandmother was found in a house, an immigration court judge should decide her fate, Homan indicated

“Let the judge decide,” he said. “We’re going to remove people that have a judge’s order deported.”

Shift in policy

Homan’s suggestion that an undocumented grandmother might face arrest would mark a major shift in policy. Under President Biden, ICE is mostly targeting those deemed national security or public safety threats — and people who just crossed the border illegally.

“It’s not OK to enter a country illegally, which is a crime,” Homan said. “That’s what drives illegal immigration, when there’s no consequences.” 

The majority of the four million deportations carried out by the Biden administration have occurred at the southern border, where an unprecedented influx of migrants created scenes of chaos, a humanitarian crisis, and one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ biggest political vulnerabilities.

Cecilia Vega

Cecilia Vega is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and “60 Minutes” correspondent who joined the CBS newsmagazine in 2023.