President-elect Trump is reportedly already having back-channel discussions with countries like Mexico and El Salvador to take back deported illegal migrants.
The discussions are happening now so that when Trump officially takes office in January, the deportations can begin immediately.
Here’s more from Bloomberg:
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has reached out to the governments of Mexico and El Salvador through back channels about taking in some of the millions of undocumented migrants set to be expelled under his mass deportation plan, people familiar with the matter said.
While Trump has discussed migration issues broadly with the two countries’ leaders, his team and informal advisers have had more detailed discussions, in some cases via businesspeople as intermediaries, about taking back migrants, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
The conversations are meant to address a problem Trump faces with his deportation push: in order to expel many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, he needs other countries to take them in. The goal of the outreach is to prepare broad understandings so that detailed work on deportations can begin immediately after he takes office, according to the people.
Trump advisers involved in the effort include incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy, they said. Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” is also involved but focused more on domestic enforcement. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, nominee for Secretary of State, is avoiding direct engagement for now, they said.
The Mexican government declined to comment, while El Salvador’s government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump said today in his press conference that if other countries in the region like Venezuela and Nicaragua won’t take back their migrants, they will face tough economic sanctions. I have a feeling they will end up taking them back as Trump can be mighty persuasive.