Breaking down Trump’s deportation agenda

Nov 12, 2024

By Brakkton Booker, Gloria Gonzalez and Jesse Naranjo

What up, Recast fam! Today’s agenda:

Donald Trump’s senior adviser on Latinos discusses immigration under the second administration
The political duopoly that has reigned in Puerto Rico took a bit hit
Goodbye “Little Marco” and hello “Mr. Secretary of State”

Photo illustration of torn-paper edge on photo of Carlos Trujillo speaking at news conference.

Carlos Trujillo speaks at an Aug. 22 news conference at Trump Tower during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. | POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP

Carlos Trujillo may not be a household name, but he was instrumental in helping President-elect Donald Trump hone his message to Latino voters.

It resulted in Trump increasing his vote share with this bloc — jumping from 32 percent in 2020 to 46 percent following last week’s election, including a staggering 55 percent of Latino men, according to CNN exit polls.

Trujillo, who’s been a senior adviser to Trump since his 2016 presidential run, served in his first administration as ambassador to the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States, which promotes peace and security among 35 nations in North and South America.

He believes Trump’s decisive victory ushered in a mandate to carry out far-reaching immigration reforms, including mass deportations. The son of immigrants who defected from Fidel Castro ’s communist Cuba, Trujillo applauds Trump’s recent decision to name immigration hard-liners Stephen Miller and Tom Homan as deputy chief of staff for policy and border czar, respectively.

“Those hires are excellent ones and are going to help carry out the vision more than 74 million Americans — including Hispanics — voted for,” Trujillo tells The Recast.

He believes Miller and Homan will bring back Trump’s previous migration-deterrent policies that the Biden administration had abandoned, like the so-called “safe third country” agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which mandated asylum-seekers from the region first seek refuge from those Northern Triangle nations before applying for asylum in the United States. Trujillo also expects Trump’s immigration team to revisit the “ Remain in Mexico” program, which called for asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while U.S. immigration courts debated a ruling in their cases.

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We asked him if he’s concerned at all about balancing mass deportations with a humane approach. How does Trump avoid the public outcry over the images of children being ripped apart from families during his first administration?

“I'm not sure the narrative of ‘we're going to separate children’ is really an accurate narrative,” Trujillo says.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE RECAST: Trump’s success with the Latino voters surprised a lot of people. What was the message you felt Trump drove home for them?

TRUJILLO: Democrats treat Hispanics as though they're a non-assimilated voting bloc, and therefore we have to pander to them. Republicans treat Hispanics as though they're Americans, and their heritage happens to be Hispanic. One thing that you hear a lot from Democrats is they push this notion that Hispanics are for illegal immigration because illegal immigration benefits Hispanics. Polls have shown Hispanics are completely against illegal immigration, because they've paid taxes, they follow the rules.

A lot of times they’ve fled countries that lack the rule of law, so when they see the same policy being implemented in places they fled to, they’re rejecting those ideas.

Attendees at campaign event pray of Donald Trump.

Attendees at an Oct. 22 roundtable with Latino leaders in Doral, Florida, pray over Trump. | Lynne Sladky/AP

THE RECAST: The president-elect has selected Stephen Miller and Tom Homan for his immigration team. These are hard-liners who are expected to implement Trump’s mass deportation plans.

Can you explain how that is going to be carried out, especially since the president-elect is suggesting there may be no price tag for the scale of the deportations he’ll launch?

TRUJILLO: So obviously, the price tag, I think it's less expensive to deport people who are in this country illegally — committing crimes — than it is to keep them.

I worked with Stephen in the first Trump administration. Tom Homan has a spectacular reputation. And both are people who were very, very effective in curbing illegal migration.

Stephen was essential in negotiating the “safe third country” agreements, the “Remain in Mexico” policy — these were all issues that President Trump openly campaigned on, unlike his Democratic opponent who campaigned for sanctuary cities before flipping to saying she’s going to be really tough on the border.

President Trump has been clear and consistent on his border policy. With his clear and consistent message, he was able to garner the most Hispanic votes in the history of the Republican Party. So those hires are excellent ones and are going to help carry out the vision more than 74 million Americans — including Hispanics — voted for.

Tom Homan speaks as Donald Trump looks on at campaign event.

Tom Homan speaks at Trump's primary election night party Jan. 23 in Nashua, New Hampshire. | Matt Rourke/AP

THE RECAST: What's next for you? Are you angling for a position in the upcoming administration?

TRUJILLO: No, I'm helping Trump and the team through the transition process. But I'm not committed to any position or even entering the administration. I'm happy in the private sector.

THE RECAST: So you are fine being an informal adviser, but not necessarily interested in being an influence on the inside.

TRUJILLO: Correct.

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THE RECAST: Democrats hammered the first Trump administration on the idea and the imagery of the government breaking up families and putting kids in cages, or rounding up people who haven’t committed violent crimes and are also parents to American-born children.

Are you concerned Trump’s mass deportations plan is going to renew criticisms of family separation all over again?

TRUJILLO: So just to clarify, the kids in cages started under the Obama administration. President Trump has been very clear in that the first step is to remove criminals.

Let’s start with the 13,000 murderers; I think that’s a pretty good number of people we want to get out. There are over 600,000 people who have [had contact with] law enforcement or have criminal records in this country. I think, obviously, the mass deportations should focus on those who are the most dangerous and most violent and pose the most risk to our country.

(Editor’s note: Research shows that immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, commit crimes at lower rates than people born in the U.S.)

THE RECAST: Will this 600,000 be enough? My assumption is some will be looking for figures much higher than that. How do you balance a mass deportation plan with those who are stressing a humane approach to this?

TRUJILLO: I'm not sure of the narrative that you're painting, that all these people are concerned. Were they concerned for the last four years when millions of people entered this country and showed up in cities that are completely overrun?

Recent immigrants to the United States sit with their belongings

Migrants sit with their belongings on the sidewalk in front of the Watson Hotel, where they had been living, in New York, Jan. 30, 2023. | Seth Wenig/AP

There are entire hotels dedicated to migrant staffing across this country. There are veterans who are being displaced from their houses. I'm not sure the narrative of “we're going to separate children” is really an accurate narrative.

We need to be able to adjudicate people in the fastest way possible, to adjudicate their asylum. We have to recognize the last four years of millions of people entering this country because of political pandering that led to a landslide victory for Trump in order to implement his agenda.

THE RECAST: Is his agenda going to include finishing the border wall too?

TRUJILLO: I think Kamala Harris acknowledged saying we should have finished the border wall, right?

Finishing the wall is very important, but I also think it's important to focus on all the great policies that the Trump administration advanced in the first term, including the “safe third country agreements,” “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42 expulsions. Those are all important things I'm sure will be implemented in some shape or form [again] to deal with the migratory crisis.

ABOUT PUERTO RICO’S ELECTION...

Voters line up at polling station in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Voters line up at a polling station in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Election Day. | Alejandro Granadillo/AP

The result of Puerto Rico’s governor’s race isn’t officially certified yet. But it looks like the territory’s traditional political duopoly took a big hit, our Gloria Gonzalez writes.

As Gloria reported last week, local politics has been dominated by the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, or Partido Nuevo Progresista, and the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party or Partido Popular Democrático.

The PNP’s candidate for governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, was largely favored to win — until she started losing support in the polls in the final weeks of the campaign and Juan Dalmau Ramírez, a candidate backed by both the Independence Party and the Citizens’ Victory Movement, started gaining momentum.

González-Colón, as of now, looks to have survived the challenge. But more notably, Dalmau clinched a second-place standing with 33 percent of the vote, beating PDP’s candidate, Rep. Jesús Manuel Ortiz González, who came in at 21 percent.

Julio López Varona, co-chief of campaigns for progressive advocacy group the Center for Popular Democracy, said in a text message the support for Dalmau represented a “huge shift.”

But it’s not as if the pro-commonwealth PDP went home empty-handed: Pablo José Hernández Rivera looks likely to win the race for resident commissioner, Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative in Congress, as well as a sizable portion of municipal seats.

Still, many would argue the victors of the night were the pro-statehood PNP — which looks to have won not only the gubernatorial race, but also control of both houses of the Legislature — and the new coalition, fueled by young voters, to challenge politics as usual in Puerto Rico.

Andrés Córdova Phelps, a professor in Puerto Rico and chair of the Puerto Rico Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, called the PDP’s “demise” a surprise. He had expected, at the very least, a divided Legislature.