Trump Suggests Deporting US-Born Children with Undocumented Parents to Avoid Family Separation

 

President-elect Donald Trump has proposed deporting U.S.-born children alongside their undocumented parents, in a bid to avoid the separation of families during mass deportations.

Trump, who has vowed to undertake a significant crackdown on undocumented immigration once he takes office, addressed concerns surrounding mixed-status families—where some members are U.S. citizens, and others are undocumented—during a recent interview.

He stated that his approach would involve deporting families as a unit, including U.S.-born children, in order to prevent breaking up families. "So the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back," Trump explained.

When asked about the impact on U.S. citizen children in these mixed-status families, Trump confirmed that if children wish to stay with their parents, they would be deported together. "Even kids who are here legally?" Trump was asked, to which he responded, "What you’ve got to do if they want to stay with their father — look, we have to have rules and regulations."

This statement comes as part of Trump’s broader immigration plan, which has drawn significant attention and concern for the approximately 4 million mixed-status families living in the U.S. under varying legal circumstances. The proposal has sparked debates about the future of these families and the complexities of immigration policy under the incoming administration.