Thune questions whether it’s ‘realistic’ to illegally deport everyone in the country

Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) questioned whether illegally deporting everyone in the United States was “realistic” Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Host Kristen Welker said, “Let’s talk about the Republican agenda. When I spoke to President-elect Donald Trump, he said his mass deportation plan was his top priority. He wants to expel everyone who is here illegally. Do you support this plan to expel all those who are here illegally?

Thune said, “Well, I think there are certainly categories of people who have committed crimes. The current administration had targeted more than a million people for deportation. So I think we have to take seriously the fact that there are many people in this country today, over 10 million who have arrived in the last four years under the policies of the current administration, and many of whom are not here for the right reasons. . We know we’ve apprehended people on the terrorist border watch list, and you have gang members and cartel members and all of the above. As we think about the next steps, the first thing is to secure this border and make sure we change the incentives that are in place so that people are incentivized to come here illegally, as they have over the last four years. And doing everything we can to ensure that border personnel, ICE agents, and border agents have the resources they need to do their jobs. Part of that involves physical barriers, part of it is technological barriers, et cetera, and those will require resources, and others will require the expulsion of some people who are here illegally.

Welker said: “In 2016, you said that illegally evicting everyone here was not realistic. Have you changed your mind?

Thune said: “Again, I think as you start, it’s obviously going to be a process, and it’s obviously going to take resources to get people to leave the country. We will need to ensure that the administration has the necessary resources to enable it to do so. Is it realistic to deport everyone? I mean, there are a lot of people in this country who are here illegally, but I think they’ve already identified themselves, and anyone who has committed a crime in the country should be on the list, and there are about a million, 1.4 million, I think, on the current administration’s list of people who need to be deported. So start with that and then we’ll go from there and find a solution. I think the administration, when it takes office, these will be decisions that it obviously has to make.”

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