December 7, 2015: As A Candidate, Trump Called For A “Total And Complete Shutdown” Of Muslims Entering The United States. According to the Washington Post, “Donald Trump called Monday for a ‘total and complete shutdown’ of the entry of Muslims to the United States ‘until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.’ In a statement released by his campaign Monday afternoon, Trump included recent poll findings that he says show that a sizable segment of the Muslim population has ‘great hatred towards Americans.’” [Washington Post, 12/7/15]
2017: As President, Trump Signed An Executive Order Banning Entry Into The U.S. From Seven Muslim-Majority Countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, And Yemen. According to CNN, “With just a few quick strokes of the pen, President Donald Trump on Friday banned -- temporarily, for now -- roughly 218 million people from entering the United States. Trump barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for at least the next 90 days by executive order, which a senior White House official said later Friday is likely just a first step toward establishing a broader ban […] Trump banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for at least the next 90 days. The executive order bars all people hailing from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen -- or at least 218 million people, based on 2015 data published by the World Bank -- from entering the United States.” [CNN, 1/29/17]
January 31, 2020: Trump Added Six Countries With Significant Muslim Populations To His List Of Countries Under His Travel Ban: Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan, And Myanmar. According to the New York Times, “President Trump on Friday added six countries to his list of nations facing stringent travel restrictions, a move that will virtually block immigration from Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, and from Myanmar, where the Muslim minority is fleeing genocide. Beside Nigeria, three other African countries, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania, will face varying degrees of restrictions, as will one former Soviet state, Kyrgyzstan. Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims could also be caught in the crossfire. All six countries have substantial Muslim populations. The total number of countries now on the restricted travel list stands at 13.” [New York Times, 1/31/20]
Trump Said He Would Bring Back An “Even Bigger Than Before” Travel Ban. According to CBS News, “Former President Trump said Friday for the first time publicly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would bring back a travel ban ‘even bigger than before,’ alluding to his administration's restrictions on travelers from heavily Muslim countries. The first two bans faced steep challenges in court, but the third version of the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in 2018. That ban barred nearly all travelers from five mainly Muslim countries, in addition to North Korea and Venezuela. President Biden signed an executive order reversing the ban his first week in office. Trump made the comment in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as he made his pitch to voters in the largely White state. ‘Under the Trump administration, we imposed extreme vetting and put on a powerful travel ban to keep radical Islamic terrorists and jihadists out of our country,’ Trump told his audience. ‘Well, how did that work out? We had no problem, right? They knew they couldn't come here if they had that moniker. They couldn't come here.’ ‘When I return to office, the travel ban is coming back even bigger than before and much stronger than before. We don't want people blowing up our shopping centers. We don't want people blowing up our cities and we don't want people stealing our farms. So it's not gonna happen.’” [CBS News, 7/7/23]
2015: Trump Said That Mexican Immigrants Were “Bringing Drugs. They’re Bringing Crime. They’re Rapists.” According to CNBC, “But Trump widened that divide — and began his rise to the top of Republican polls with hot rhetoric in his presidential announcement speech about who was crossing America’s southern border. ‘When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,’ he declared in June. ‘They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.’” [CNBC, 10/28/15]
2015: Trump Campaign Release Said That Criminals “Crossed Our Border Illegally Only To Go On To Commit Horrific Crimes Against Americans.” According to the Donald Trump campaign, “The impact in terms of crime has been tragic. In recent weeks, the headlines have been covered with cases of criminals who crossed our border illegally only to go on to commit horrific crimes against Americans.” [Donald Trump Campaign, 8/16/15]
VIDEO: Trump: “If You Look At The Statistics On Rape, On Crime, On Everything Coming In Illegally Into This Country, They're Mind Boggling.” According to CNN, “TRUMP: Well, if you look at the statistics, our people come -- I didn't say about Mexicans. I say the illegal immigrants. If you look at the statistics on rape, on crime, on everything coming in illegally into this country, they're mind boggling. If you go to Fusion, you will see a story about 80% of the women coming in, I mean, you have to take a look at these stories. And you know who owns Fusion? Univision.” [CNN, 7/1/15]
May 16, 2018: Trump Said Undocumented Immigrants “Aren’t People. These Are Animals.” According to USA Today, “President Trump used extraordinarily harsh rhetoric to renew his call for stronger immigration laws Wednesday, calling undocumented immigrants ‘animals’ and venting frustration at Mexican officials who he said ‘do nothing’ to help the United States. ‘We have people coming into the country or trying to come in, we're stopping a lot of them, but we're taking people out of the country. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are,’ Trump said. ‘These aren't people. These are animals.’” [USA Today, 5/16/18]
June 2015: Trump Said He Would Build A 2,000-Mile-Long Border Wall Along The Southern Border. According to the New Yorker, “When Trump announced his candidacy, on June 16th, he vowed to build a two-thousand-mile-long wall to stop Mexico from ‘sending people that have lots of problems.’ He said, ‘They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.’ Three of the statements had no basis in fact-the crime rate among first-generation immigrants is lower than that for native-born Americans-but Trump takes an expansive view of reality. ‘I play to people’s fantasies,’ he writes in ‘The Art of the Deal,’ his 1987 memoir. ‘I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration-and a very effective form of promotion.’” [New Yorker, 8/31/15]
2015: Trump: “We’re Going To Do A Wall; We’re Going To Have A Big, Fat Beautiful Door On The Wall.” According to CNBC, “Presidential hopeful Donald Trump insisted Wednesday night that he has what it takes to get Mexico to build a wall along the U.S. border. ‘We’re going to do a wall; we’re going to have a big, fat beautiful door on the wall; we’re going to have people come in, but they’re going to come in legally,’ Trump said at the third Republican debate, hosted by CNBC.” [CNBC, 10/28/15]
Under Trump, ICE Agents Used More Aggressive Tactics, Including Deception And Excessive Force During Arrests. According to NBC News, “Federal immigration agents have used more aggressive tactics since a January 2017 executive order by President Donald Trump that broadened their authority, a New York immigrant advocacy group alleges. In a report dubbed ‘ICEwatch’ released Monday that details more than 650 arrests or operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York state, the Immigrant Defense Project says ICE agents have increasingly made arrests in courthouses, used ruses such as posing as police officers, and used excessive force while enforcing immigration law. ‘ICE relies on fearmongering, secrecy, deceit, manipulation, and force to enact its devastating deportation mandate to deport as many people as possible,’ said Genia Blaser, IDP senior staff attorney. ‘By making the reports of their dehumanizing tactics widely available through ICEwatch, we aim to inform the public and community members around the escalation of ‘unshackled’ ICE policing.’” [NBC News, 7/15/18]
2019: Trump Suggested Shooting Immigrants In The Legs To Slow Them Down. According to the New York Times “Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him.” [New York Times, 10/1/19]
The Trump Administration Used COVID-19 To Promote Their Aggressive Anti-Immigration Agenda. According to Vox, “Migrants are decidedly not to blame for the pandemic. To blame are international travel, the interconnectedness of global capital, grossly ill-equipped national health systems, and leisure tourism. As the United States continues its immigration detention and deportation programs, we can now add anti-immigration policies to that list. Foisting culpability for disease and contagion on migrants and asylum seekers remains a common cliché, one that has a long and vile history. Covid-19 has been a boon to the anti-immigrant agenda that President Trump — along with other nativist leaders — has been aching to implement since he took office: wielding extraordinary executive powers to temporarily shutter the refugee resettlement program, lock down the US-Mexico border, suspend asylum processing, and push children fleeing danger back into Mexico. Invoking what he has allegedly called his ‘magical authority,’ Trump’s latest move, after threatening to stop all immigration, was a 60-day suspension of visa issuances, with some broad exceptions for health care workers, investors, plus spouses or young children of citizens or green card holders.” [Vox, 5/15/20]
Trump Wanted To Put Unprecedented Restrictions On Immigration. According to Axios, “Former President Trump wants unprecedented restrictions on immigration and the border if he's elected in 2024 — such as screening prospective immigrants for ‘Marxist’ ideologies and a naval blockade to target drug smugglers, Axios has learned.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Said Undocumented Immigrants Were “Poisoning The Blood Of Our Country.” According to the New York Times, “Former President Donald J. Trump said undocumented immigrants were ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ in a recent interview, language with echoes of white supremacy and the racial hatreds of Adolf Hitler. Mr. Trump made the remark in a 37-minute video interview with The National Pulse, a right-leaning website, that was posted last week. It drew broader scrutiny on Wednesday after the liberal MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan surfaced the quote in a post on X.” [New York Times, 10/5/23]
Trump Would Ban People Deemed “Marxists” From Entering The Country. According to Axios, “Trump's plan would involve waves of harsh new policies — and dust off old ones that rarely have been enforced, if ever. It would: Ramp up ideological screening for people legally applying to come into the country. U.S. law has blocked communists from entering for decades, it just hasn't been enforced. Trump wants to enforce it to reject applicants who are deemed ‘Marxists.’” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Would Designate Drug Cartels As “Unlawful Enemy Combatants” To Target Them In Mexico. According to Axios, “Designate drug cartels as ‘unlawful enemy combatants’ to allow the U.S. military to target them in Mexico. The U.S. has used that designation to justify long-term detentions of 9/11 suspects at Guantanamo Bay.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Would Use The Navy And Coast Guard To Blockade Drug Smuggling Boats. According to Axios, “Send the Coast Guard and the Navy to form a blockade in the waters off the U.S. and Latin America to stop drug smuggling boats. It would be a significant step up Trump's show of force in 2020, when he sent warships to the Caribbean as a warning to cartels.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Would Use The 1798 Alien And Sedition Acts To Deport Migrant Gang Members, Smugglers, And Criminals. According to Axios, “Quickly deport migrant gang members, smugglers and other criminals, using an obscure section of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Would Seek To End Birthright Citizenship. According to Axios, “Seek to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. Trump considered this as president, but today's conservative-leaning Supreme Court has given his team more confidence about taking on an inevitable legal fight.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Would Extend Texas’ Float Barriers. According to Axios, “Extend Texas' controversial floating barriers in the Rio Grande.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Would Spend Billions To Complete The Southern Border Wall. According to Axios, “Complete his border wall. Trump spent billions to put 452 miles of new fencing along the 1,954-mile southern border. Biden halted the project.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Planned To Cut Countries Whose Citizens Have A High Rate Of Overstaying Their Visas From Having Access To The Immigration System. According to Axios, “He plans to cut access to the U.S. immigration system for countries whose citizens have high rates of staying in the U.S. illegally after their visas expire.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Wanted To Require Immigrants To Prove They Could Afford Health Insurance. According to Axios, “Trump also wants to require prospective immigrants to prove they can afford health insurance, and force some travelers pay hefty bonds to enter the U.S.” [Axios, 8/21/23]
Trump Said He Would Close The Border “Immediately” If He Became President Again. According to an interview with Trump in the Texan, “TRUMP: Immediately close the border, immediately. It'll be closed within the first hour. It'll be closed as I'm walking up the steps from making my speech because I'll sign the documents while I'm walking up the steps, because I don't want to wait till I get to the Oval Office. So it'll be done very quickly and immediately. The border is so important. The whole situation with all of the prisoners, terrorists, and people from the mental institutions pouring into our country will be stopped literally within the first hour of my administration, and it's very important.” [Texan, 11/2/23]
Trump Said He Would “Begin The Largest Domestic Deportation Operation In American History” If Elected. According to the Miami Herald, “Speaking in a city where three-fourths of residents are foreign-born, former President Donald Trump on Wednesday night promised to deport a massive amount of immigrants on the first day in office should he be reelected. “Under Biden the U.S. has become the dumping ground of the world. .. They’re coming in in levels never seen before — never seen before in any country. There’s never been anything like this. Our country is being invaded. This is an invasion,’ Trump said at a rally held in opposition to the Republican National Debate happening across town simultaneously. ‘On Day One I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden Administration, he continued as the crowd’s cheers swelled. ‘And we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.’” [Miami Herald, 11/8/23]
Trump Pledged To “Begin A Record-Setting Deportation Operation.” According to an Op-Ed by Trump in the Des Moines Register, “On my first day back in office, I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration and immediately restore the full set of strong Trump border policies. Then, we will begin a record-setting deportation operation. Joe Biden has given us no choice. The millions of illegal aliens who have invaded under Biden require a record number of removals. This is just common sense.” [Op-Ed – Donald Trump, Des Moines Register, 1/3/24]
Trump Said He Would Shift Law Enforcement Agencies To Immigration Enforcement. According to an Op-Ed by Trump in the Des Moines Register, “To achieve this goal, I will make clear to every department and to state and local governments that we must use all resources and authorities available. We will shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement — including parts of the DEA, ATF, FBI, and DHS.” [Op-Ed – Donald Trump, Des Moines Register, 1/3/24]
Trump Said He Would Invoke The Alien Enemies Act. According to an Op-Ed by Trump in the Des Moines Register, “I also will invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members from the United States. And we will use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis at last.” [Op-Ed – Donald Trump, Des Moines Register, 1/3/24]
Trump Planned To Invoke The 1798 Alien Enemies Act To Legally Justify Massive Deportations. According to Rolling Stone, “AS HE CAMPAIGNS on a pledge to lead an unprecedented crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, former President Donald Trump has vowed to invoke an 18th century wartime law to help fuel his massive deportation operations. According to three people familiar with the policy deliberations, Trump, his advisers, and allies have been developing legally dubious justifications and theories to give Trump what he would ostensibly need to wield the archaic law as a weapon against the undocumented if he’s elected president again. If Trump were to try to invoke the Alien Enemies Act for this purpose, it would almost certainly provoke court challenges, since the law is meant to target the actions of foreign governments and regimes during wartime, not alleged criminals, gangs, or non-state actors. One source familiar with the plans — a lawyer who has counseled Trump over the years — tells Rolling Stone the legal justifications under consideration by the ex-president and his associates are ‘very convoluted and crazy to me.’ […] Invoking the Alien Enemies Act is a key component of the multi-pronged immigration and southern-border clampdown that Trump is planning. The law, first passed in 1798, grants presidents the authority to remove foreign nationals over the age of 14 from countries where the United States is either engaged in a declared war or subject to ‘invasion or predatory incursion’ by their country of origin.” [Rolling Stone, 1/8/24]
Justification For Invoking The Alien Enemies Act Was Highly Questionable, Since The Actions That Trigger It Have Not Occurred Since World War II. According to Rolling Stone, “The text of the law presents a number of problems for the would-be mass deportation plans, which opponents would likely attempt to leverage in federal court. Congress has not declared war on any country since World War II, much less on any of the Latin American countries whose citizens Trump would like to deport. Nor has any foreign country invaded the U.S. since the post-war period.” [Rolling Stone, 1/8/24]
Trump Said If He Was Reelected He Would Send Overseas-Based Troops To The U.S.-Mexico Border. According to Reuters, “Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that if elected again he would shift resources from federal law enforcement agencies and send thousands of overseas-based troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.” [Reuters, 9/20/23]