"[33] Trump proposed a "Deportation Force" to carry out this plan, modeled after the 1950s-era "Operation Wetback" program during the Dwight Eisenhower administration that ended following a congressional investigation.

[37] However, on August 31, 2016, contrary to earlier reports of a "softening" in his stance,[38][39] Trump laid out a 10-step plan reaffirming his hardline positions.

He reiterated that "anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation", with priority given to those who have committed significant crimes and those who have overstayed visas.

Trump's plans are expected to encounter significant Supreme Court challenges, and engender social and economic toil, especially within the housing, agriculture, and service sectors.

Following arrest, Stephen Miller has stated that illegal immigrants would be taken to "large-scale staging grounds near the border, most likely in Texas", to be held in internment camps prior to deportation.

[28][53] Trump's campaign has stated his intention to expel DACA recipients after his previous attempt failed in 2020 by a 5–4 vote in the Supreme Court in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California.

[55][13][14][56] On January 19, 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Antonio and Washington, D.C. were potential targets for ICE arrests.

[57][58] The Republican governors of 26 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming) "remain fully committed to supporting the Trump Administration's efforts to deport dangerous criminals".

[59][60] On January 22, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the administration was rolling back an Obama-era directive that had protected illegal immigrants in sensitive areas such as hospitals, places of worship, courtrooms, funerals, weddings and schools.

[61] On January 23, high-profile ICE raids occurred in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Miami, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., detaining 538 illegal immigrants.

The mayor of Newark claimed that ICE raided a local establishment and detained illegal immigrants as well as citizens, including a veteran, without a warrant.

[67] In the early morning of January 28, 2025, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem joined multiple federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, to lead a raid on illegal immigrants in New York City.

Her department posted a video of the raid on X that showed an apparent arrest, later confirming the suspect was in custody on kidnapping, assault, and burglary charges with an outstanding warrant in Colorado.

[13][69] In February 2025, the White House posted a video on social media showing immigrants in shackles being prepared for a deportation flight, along with footage of a set of handcuffs and chains jingling as they are pulled from a basket and laid out on airport tarmac next to others.

[77] In late February 2025, lawyers representing migrants being held in the Panamanian camp expressed concern that they had not been allowed to communicate with their clients, who they said had been flown out of the U.S. without being screened for asylum.

"[82] Peyman Malaz, chief operating officer of the PARS Equality Center, noted that "Those who arrive at the border are often the most persecuted and desperate, such as Iranian Christians".

[81] On the night of February 18, Panamanian authorities moved some 170 of the migrants to the San Vicente camp four hours from Panama City which previously housed people detained after crossing the Darien Gap.

[91] The office of Costa Rica's independent ombudsman (Defender of Inhabitants) met and interviewed the migrants and issued a report detailing problems with their treatment.

A bipartisan congressional delegation that had been scheduled to travel to Guantanamo had been cancelled by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth but had not been rescheduled as of the date of the report.

Social organizations, such as Boston's Brazilian Worker Center, have hosted information meetings where immigrants can learn their rights and set up custody documents for their children in case the parents are deported.

[98] An 11 year old girl in Gainesville, Texas named Jocelyn Carranza committed suicide after students at her school started a rumor that ICE would deport her family.

[102] Shortly after Trump took office in January 2025, rumors of mass deportations and fears of increased ICE raids impacted the agriculture sector with massive drops in field workers who showed up for work the day after the inauguration.

[23][105][106][107] Adam Tooze said that the planned deportations would cause "a series of rolling shocks to a large part of the U.S. economy" and would also affect people outside those sectors by raising prices.

"[111] It was reported in February 2025 that law enforcement had arrested individuals in at least three states that were allegedly impersonating ICE officers, during the ramping up of deportations.

In North Carolina, Carl Thomas Bennett was arrested for impersonating an ICE officer and sexually assaulting a woman threatening to deport her if she did not comply.

State Senator Theresa Hatathlie, who represents Arizona's 6th legislative district, joined the committee meeting and shared her report in the Navajo language.

Hatathlie reported to the Council that she received a call about a case involving eight Navajo citizens who were detained for hours with no cell phones or ability to contact their families or tribes.

After a federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship, the United States Department of Justice, in defense of the constitutionality of the executive order, argued in court that Native Americans did not have birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment because they were not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States based on the 1884 Supreme Court case Elk v. Wilkins, so neither should the children of illegal immigrants or temporary visitors.

The executive director of Raise the Floor Alliance, Sophia Zaman, claimed the motives of the raids were retaliatory by the Trump administration against the cities policies.

[118] On February 11, 2025, a coalition of more than two dozen Christian and Jewish denominations sued the Department of Homeland Security et al. over its decision to allow ICE agents to raid houses of worship to make arrests.