SAN DIEGO: "Build the Wall" was Donald Trump's rally cry in 2016, and he acted on his promise by tapping military budgets for hundreds of miles of border wall with Mexico. "Mass Deportation" was the buzzword that energized supporters for his White House bid in 2024.
Trump's victory sets the stage for a swift crackdown after an AP VoteCast survey showed the president-elect's supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation — issues the Republican has been hammering throughout his campaign.
How and when Trump's actions on immigration will take shape is uncertain.
While Trump and his advisers have offered outlines, many questions remain about how they would deport anywhere close to the 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally. How would immigrants be identified? Where would they be detained? What if their countries refuse to take them back? Where would Trump find money and trained officers to carry out their deportation?
Trump has said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country the US is at war with. He has spoken about deploying the National Guard, which can be activated on orders from a governor. Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, has said troops under sympathetic Republican governors would send troops to nearby states that refuse to participate.
Trump, who repeatedly referred to immigrants "poisoning the blood" of the United States, has stricken fear in immigrant communities with words alone.
Julie Moreno, a US citizen who has been married for seven years to a Mexican man who is in the country illegally, is adjusting to the idea that she may have to live separately from her husband, who came to the United States in 2004. She can move to Mexico from New Jersey but it would be nearly impossible to keep running her business importing boxing gloves.
"I don't have words yet, too many feelings," Moreno said, her voice breaking as she spoke Wednesday of Trump’s victory. "I am very scared for my husband's safety… If they detain him, what is going to happen?"
Moreno’s husband, Neftali Juarez, ran a construction business and feels he has contributed to the country, paying taxes and providing employment through his company. "Unfortunately, the sentiment of the people who voted is different," he said. "I feel horrible losing my wife."
Some policy experts expect Trump's first immigration moves to be at the border. He may pressure Mexico to keep blocking migrants from reaching the US border as it has since December. He may lean on Mexico to reinstate a Trump-era policy that made asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in US immigration court.
Andrew Arthur, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports immigration restrictions, highlighted campaign remarks by Vice President-elect JD Vance that deporting millions would be done one step at a time, not all at once.
"You're not talking about a dragnet," Arthur, a former immigration judge, told The Associated Press. "There's no way you could do it. The first thing you have to do is seal the border and then you can address the interior. All of this is going to be guided by the resources you have available."
Elena, a 46-year-old Nicaraguan who has been living in the United States illegally for 25 years, couldn’t sleep after Trump’s victory, crying about what to do if she and her husband, 50, are deported. They have two adult daughters, both US citizens, who have had stomach pain and respiratory problems from anxiety about the election.