President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he wants to start a self-deportation program for immigrants in America.
Trump was speaking to Fox Noticias in an interview when he said that his administration would be rolling out new schemes to tackle illegal immigration in the US.
“These are rough, bad people. We want them out, and that’s mostly our focus, but what we want to do is we are going to have a self-deportation program, which we haven’t even announced yet,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Trump added that he hasn’t worked out the exact details of the program, though it could involve giving immigrants a stipend so they could return to their home country.
“We are going to give him a stipend, we are going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we are going to work with them. If they are good, if we want them back in, we are going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can,” Trump continued.
Cracking down on immigration has long been a focus for Trump. While on the campaign trail, Trump said deporting millions of immigrants would result in more job opportunities for Americans.
Immigration researchers and analysts, however, told Business Insider that Trump’s plans could exacerbate America’s demographic challenges as well as result in a labor shortage for the agriculture and construction industries.
Earlier in the interview, Trump acknowledged that farmers and business owners rely on immigrants as a source of labor and that he would help businesses hire them lawfully.
“We are making it so that if a farmer can give recommendations to people, we’re going to be very soothing in terms of perhaps letting that farmer take responsibility,” Trump told Fox Noticias.
“But you know, ultimately, at some point, we want people to go out and come back as legal,” he added.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
