Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of the accompanying video from professor Peter St. Onge.
Mass deportations are coming. Which feels about right given we’re a democracy and nearly 60% of Americans want mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Who are, after all, breaking the law by trespassing on our republic.
So, how fast and who goes first? After Joe Biden’s communist handlers let perhaps 20 million illegal immigrants into our country—many of them murderers and rapists because, sadly, some countries did not send their best—President-elect Donald Trump has promised the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
The current record-holder is Franklin D. Roosevelt, who deported 2 million aliens, overwhelmingly Mexican. I mentioned in a recent video how FDR’s deportations included citizen children of illegal immigrants, so that is perfectly legal—they will pretend it’s not.
The active deportations will start with criminals and will essentially be arrests. But the real magic happens in the background, the self-deportations.
I mentioned in a recent video how up to 90% of FDR’s deportations actually self-deported to avoid forced deportation. Today, we’d be looking at 15 million self-deportations if the message is clear.
Wall Street Silver recently suggested some ways to get the self-deportations rolling. Including cutting all financial benefits, from food stamps to rent subsidies, from free apartments to Obamaphones. This would, of course, free up resources for, say, homeless combat veterans.
Next, cancel the so-called temporary refugee status that hands out work permits like candy and is apparently killing the ducks in Springfield, Ohio.
Then the big one: Crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Which is already illegal, with up to six months in prison, but is not enforced.
Next up is the border. To both stop the flow of new illegal immigrants and ensure that deportations aren’t a revolving door, Donald Trump plans to finish his wall, of course, and to restore his “Remain in Mexico” policy that made illegal immigrants stay in Mexico while they’re processed—which can take years.
After all, beggars don’t get free caviar, and a true refugee should be perfectly happy with Mexico, a country over a million Americans retire to.
In case Mexico doesn’t play ball, Trump’s threatened a 25% tariff on everything Mexico exports to us if Mexico doesn’t get illegal immigration under control. So, Mexico may not pay for the wall, but it will be the wall.
Beyond deportations, Trump wants more screenings for immigrants, so we continue to attract the best and brightest without getting swamped by criminals and welfare cases.
Ideally, we’d replace our current bubble gum and baling wire immigration system with a points system like Japan uses, where you get points for education, income, career achievements, and age so you’re not a burden on our health care system. Prove enough points and you’re in. Fail and you’re out for good.
Finally, what does mass deportation do to the economy? In short, millions of jobs open up for Americans, along with millions of houses. The Americans will get higher wages, lower rents, and, of course, we’re not spending hundreds of billions on welfare for illegal immigrants.
Inflation and gross domestic product depend on magnitudes—how high are the wages, how low are the rents, how many people leave, and what were they contributing, if anything.
So what’s next?
Mass deportations will begin once Trump takes office Jan. 20, starting with criminal migrants. For the rest, simply enforcing existing laws will, going by history, do almost all the work.
As for those who refuse to go, the American military has a million and a half men. They’d probably love to get a mission that actually protects the country.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.