Speaking with NBC News on Thursday, the president-elect was asked about how much it would cost to carry out his deportation plan, which he made reference to numerous times during his presidential campaign.
“It’s not a question of a price tag,” Trump said, adding that “really, we have no choice.”
“When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries. And now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”
His campaign had pledged to expel about 11 million people who are not authorized to be in the United States, although Trump himself has said he believes that as many as 21 million are in the country illegally.
“We obviously have to make the border strong and powerful, and we have to—at the same time, we want people to come into our country,” he said before signaling that the United States still needs legal immigrants.
“And you know, I’m not somebody that says, ‘No, you can’t come in.’ We want people to come in.”
Both Democrats and the nonprofit American Immigration Council have been critical of the mass deportation proposal, with the NGO estimating in a report that Trump’s plan may cost as much as $315 billion overall.
In campaign events and media appearances, both Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have said that Americans would see longstanding economic benefits from the deportation plan. During his only debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vance said that illegal immigrants are a reason why housing and rent prices have soared across the United States in recent years.
“Kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes” would help bring down housing costs, Vance said on Oct. 1.
Hellbound and Down 