Trump's ambitious deportation goal faces logistical hurdles
Immigration officers and analysts are expressing growing scepticism about the Trump administration's plans to deport one million immigrants within a year. The "Washington Post" cites experts who consider this goal unattainable, if not outright impossible to achieve.
The newspaper emphasises that deporting one million people in a year would significantly surpass previous statistics. The current record is over 400,000 deportations during Barack Obama's presidency.
According to analysts, available data suggests that the set goal seems unrealistic, if not impossible to achieve, given the current funding, level of employment, and the fact that most immigrants are entitled to a court hearing before deportation - evaluates the "Washington Post".
One of the strategies being considered for quickly increasing the number of deportations, officials report, is finding ways to remove part of the 1.4 million immigrants who have already received final deportation orders. The problem is that they cannot be deported because their home countries refuse to accept them.
The administration is negotiating with almost 30 third countries. It hopes to send "thousands" of immigrants to these countries, directing them, among others, to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama.
"Washington Post": Trump's media spectacle
Officials from the Trump administration have turned the transfer of hundreds of detainees to a prison facility in El Salvador and the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba into a major media event. Despite the attention, these detainees make up just a tiny portion of the overall population living in the United States without legal status. The majority of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants are eligible for a hearing in immigration court before any deportation, even if they have criminal records. Due to existing case backlogs, this legal process could extend over several months or even years, according to projections from a Washington-based newspaper.
Even locating the 1.4 million people with outstanding deportation orders may prove to be a challenging task.
