As Donald Trump becomes the GOP’s presumptive nominee for president following his recent string of Republican primary victories, his allies in MAGA media are framing the upcoming general election as a referendum on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
It’s no secret that this is the preferred immigration policy of Trump himself. He recently appeared on far-right cable network Newsmax and promised a second Trump administration would have “no choice” but to pursue mass deportations, suggesting he would deputize local police forces to conduct sweeping raids and give them “immunity” to do so. At a rally in North Carolina days earlier, he again outlined his priorities, promising the “largest domestic deportation operation” in American history.
Stephen Miller, the adviser behind some of the previous Trump administration’s most notorious immigration policies including the so-called Muslim ban and family separation policy, is now a frequent guest in right-wing media and the architect of the Trump 2024 campaign’s deportation agenda.
After Trump’s wins on Super Tuesday, Miller tweeted: “Tonight, Republican primary voters sent a clear message to the millions of illegal aliens Biden has resettled across America: you are going back home.”
Legal commentator Mike Davis, who has been floated by Trumpworld as a potential interim attorney general in the next administration, retweeted Miller’s post.
Miller also appeared at CPAC on February 23 and described his plan to round up migrants into camps and deport them.
“You grab illegal immigrants, and then you move them to the staging grounds, and that’s where the planes are waiting,” he said.
Fellow Trump adviser and War Room host Steve Bannon has been driving home the point that a Trump reelection will be an explicit endorsement of mass deportations for several days.
“Let’s meet on 5 November, up or down vote,” Bannon said. “Who wants mass deportations immediately of the illegal alien invaders and who doesn’t?"
He later declared: “We are going to deport 10 million illegal alien invaders, have no right to be in this country, no right. Let me say, when I say no right, I mean zero right to be in this country, zero. Zero, by our asylum laws, zero."
Days earlier, Bannon said, “Mass deportations are going to start, if you don’t like that, then don’t vote for President Trump.”
Throughout his career, Bannon has said the best way for media producers and politicians to stay in touch with the interests of their base is to read the comments section on digital news sites. He told Politico in 2016 that as executive chairman of Breitbart, he enjoyed “the intensity in the comments,” adding, “I think people are engaged. They feel like they have a voice.”
On Gettr, Bannon reiterated that the general election would be a referendum on mass deportations. One comment from a user in his replies stood out, suggesting deportations won’t go far enough for some MAGA audiences: “If we start shooting them they will leave on their own, cheaper and quicker.”
