To carry out his mass deportation promises, President Trump will have to kick his administration into a higher gear, shutting down the jobs that illegal immigrants take, closing their bank accounts and unleashing the IRS to find people working under stolen Social Security numbers, the Mass Deportation Coalition said Wednesday.
The coalition said Mr. Trump’s first-year plan of prioritizing the “worst-of-the-worst” — focusing on illegal immigrants with criminal records for deportation — has failed to deliver the big numbers he promised.
They said it’s time for Mr. Trump to move to Phase II and expand the aperture for arrests and deportations by moving to immigration enforcement at job sites. That would mean snaring more rank-and-file immigrants, as well as going after the employers who hired them.
“Worksite enforcement is the most critical missing enforcement policy for the Trump administration to get on track and meet his agenda,” the coalition said in a 104-page blueprint.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., the White …
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The recommendations come at a critical point for Mr. Trump and the Department of Homeland Security, which faced intense criticism after an operation in Minnesota saw agents and officers scour the state for deportation targets, sparking protests and the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens.
In the aftermath, Mr. Trump dumped Secretary Kristi Noem and installed Markwayne Mullin, who has promised a less headline-grabbing approach to enforcement.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was on pace to set a record for deportations, averaging about 1,250 a day from October through January. But that’s still less than half the rate needed to achieve the 1 million deportations a year the White House had called for.
The coalition, with its new blueprint, is seeking to stiffen spines while prodding a pivot on how ICE has carried out its operations. They said the administration should double down on enforcement, with a new aperture for whom to target and tools to use.
The coalition called for appointing prosecutors to focus on immigration-related crimes, enforce long-standing rules about aliens registering with the government even if they came illegally, blocking illegal immigrants’ access to banks and seizing assets of those involved in illegal immigration.
Coupled with pressure on businesses, those tools could make it riskier for illegal immigrants to remain in the shadows.
“For aliens here illegally, the prospect of losing vehicles, bank accounts, tools or money for remittances would encourage voluntary departure long before removal proceedings conclude or likely even begin,” the coalition said.
The pressure on businesses would be a significant departure for Mr. Trump, who has at times complained after his administration pursued enforcement that affected certain workforces.
But the coalition said the public is ready. Citing recent survey data from the Immigration Accountability Project, the coalition said 72% of Americans want to see audits of employers to prevent hiring of illegal immigrants, and 71% who want to see those firms face penalties.
Asked specifically about IRS fining them, 69% of survey respondents backed the idea.
