Can the US Military Really Catch 15 Million People? (Spoiler Alert: Probably Not)
Trump's election has fueled fears of mass deportations, with the potential for military involvement. The plan targets undocumented workers, particularly those in construction, agriculture, and domestic service.
The specter of mass deportations looms large over the United States. As President Donald Trump’s campaign promises evolve into policy proposals, his rhetoric on immigration—once a rallying cry for his base—now faces the complexities of implementation. Raúl Guillermo Benítez Manaut, a researcher at the Center for Research on North America at UNAM, warns that while such plans might fulfill political pledges, they risk triggering economic, social, and diplomatic upheaval on an unprecedented scale.
Benítez Manaut points out that the logistical hurdles of mass deportation are immense. Local and state law enforcement resources, especially in border states like Arizona, Texas, and California, are insufficient to execute large-scale raids. Even at the federal level, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lacks the manpower for such an operation. These limitations have led to discussions about deploying the U.S. Army—a prospect that, while legally possible under an Executive Order, would break with long-standing norms of not using the military for domestic law enforcement.
