Donald Trump has vowed to intensify his crackdown on immigration if he returns to the White House and has left the door open to resuming his most controversial policy - family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border - but key allies who could join a new Trump administration as immigration enforcers are wary.

Five former Trump officials and conservative allies told Reuters that even as Trump weighs harsher anti-migrant measures, they are concerned about implementing a new version of the 2018 “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of children from their parents at the southwest border.

They said they worry about a repeat of the widespread public backlash provoked by the original policy.

“The family separation that resulted from the zero tolerance caused an uproar in the country,” said Tom Homan, a former Trump immigration official who could join a second administration. “The best way to do it, rather than deal with all that chaos that comes with it, is to keep them in a residential center together and have their hearings together.”

    • spaceghoti@lemmy.oneOPEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      If only. The Justice Department is focused on Trump as the ringleader. That doesn’t mean all the architects have been identified. Eastman hasn’t attempted a plea deal so far as I’ve seen, so there’s hope that at least some of them will end up in prison. Assuming, of course, that Trump doesn’t manage to get back into office and pardon them all or just make the indictments go away.