Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rs.C., on Sunday urged her Republican colleagues in Congress to prioritize sending more money to the Trump administration to help the president with his mass deportation plan.
“Here is the question for the Republican Party. We talked about doing this, but we don’t have the resources. We haven’t given the Trump team the resources,” Graham said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
The mass deportation was one of President Donald Trump’s biggest abstentions in the campaign. In his stump speech, he repeatedly promised to “launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” saying he would often deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
Immediately after the election, Trump dismissed concerns about how much this effort would cost, telling NBC News in a November interview after the election, “it’s not a question of a price.”
He added then: “No, actually, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug traffickers have destroyed countries, and now they are going to return to those countries because they don’t stay here, there is no price.”
But in recent weeks, Trump’s designated border czar, Tom Homan, told conservative media that Congress needs to appropriate more money for the effort if Trump’s campaign promise is to be fulfilled.
Homan said that “$86 billion is the minimum” during an interview on Fox Business’ “Sunday Morning Futures” in December, adding: “This deal will be expensive to start, but in the long run, there will be huge tax savings for the American taxpayer.”
In a November Fox News interview, Homan said, “We have to have the resources to do the job.”
It was a point Graham emphasized Sunday, telling “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker: “We need to give Tom Homan the money now to execute the plan he came up with, and without funding from Congress, this is going to come to fruition.” a blow to the wall.”
Graham also backed the notion of using the reconciliation process to fund Trump’s plan, allowing the Senate to pass certain tax- and funding-related bills with a simple majority.
“So we need to make two bills in reconciliation. The first bill should be $100 billion for the border, $200 billion for national security, put those points on the board. Give Tom the tools he needs to execute a mass deportation strategy,” Graham said.
Homan has said he will use additional funds to pay for more immigration and customs enforcement agents and more detention beds, but even with those efforts, experts have cast doubt on the administration’s ability to deport more than 10 million people, especially in the space of just one presidential term.
Graham on Sunday seemed to agree that it would be logistically difficult to deport everyone living in the United States illegally.
“I’m not so sure they would deport 11 million people,” he said. But he pointed to certain groups of undocumented immigrants who could be prioritized for removal, including those who have been convicted of other crimes.
“He said they’re going to deport people who are part of gangs who are criminals,” Graham said, adding that there are hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of “serious crimes.”
In a later interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Homan echoed Graham’s point about financial restrictions that could prohibit the Trump administration from deporting 11 million people.
“I’m being realistic,” Homan said. “We can do what we can with the money we have. We’re going to try to be efficient, but the more money we have, the more we can accomplish.”
