Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
President Donald Trump has made it clear that securing the border and fixing the illegal immigration crisis is a top priority for his new administration.
In his first 100 days, Trump dramatically reshaped the U.S. immigration system. Despite these changes through executive order and administration mandates, deportation numbers are not what they need to be to meet the goal of deporting all the illegal immigrants former President Biden let in during his term.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Kamala has ILLEGALLY flown in more than HALF A MILLION migrants, while working with left-wing nonprofits to inundate Pennsylvania communities, changing the character of small towns and villages, and changing them FOREVER.
YOU HAVE TO GET THEM THE HELL OUT. pic.twitter.com/SOI9XTHzV0
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 24, 2024
Still, there is a way to make this happen: no jobs, no benefits, no illegal immigration.
Violent criminals are rightfully a top priority for Border Czar Tom Homan’s deportation plan. Americans deserve safe communities, and Trump has promised to make this happen. One can see this plan is stirring the hornet’s nest of cartel angst as ICE agents target suspected illicit businesses harboring illegal immigrants beholden to these murderous drug gangs. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
But how does Trump go after the millions of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. without drug and criminal activity on the official record? Trump is already offering a self-deportation incentive program that includes $1,000, a one-way ticket back to their home country, and a clean immigration record should they want to come back legally. This has been successful to the tune of about 1 million illegal immigrants leaving the workforce since March, according to the Washington Post.
Two new studies estimate we’re seeing 5 to 10 self-deportations for every formal deportation.
That comes to 500,000 to 1,000,000 self-deportations in just 4 months 🤯
The key is cutting off the money: Illegal employers. And government handouts. pic.twitter.com/9J8YFH27TX
— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) June 19, 2025
Still, there are approximately 15.4 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., with about 10.8 million working in the U.S. job market, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. To get this sect of illegal immigrants to self-deport is going to be much harder, but his administration has a plan. (ROOKE: MSNBC Rushes To Cut Off Pete Hegseth Right When He’s About To Expose Biden’s Massive Failure)
Homan recently told “Ingram Angle” guest host Kayleigh McEnany that despite Trump’s previous suggestion that his administration would not be targeting farms and hotels for immigration raids, they would, in fact, be doing that.
“Look, like everything else, [the] president’s prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats. When it comes to worksites, we prioritize those operations too. Many places we will target the worksite enforcement operations. It’s gonna have to do with forced labor trafficking, sex trafficking and criminal investigations. Where they’re not paying taxes, there’s tax evasion or they’re funding cartel activity,” Homan said.
He then doubled down on this stance while talking to the press Thursday, stating: “We’re going to continue to do worksite enforcement operations, even on farms and hotels, but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first.”
“Well, first of all, there’s a right way and wrong way to hire workers. There are legal programs that bring farm workers in,” Homan said when pressed about whether or not farmers should be concerned that the raids would hurt their jobs. “Second of all, I’ve been saying for years, Congress needs to address this. But because Congress failed, it just doesn’t mean we ignore it. It’s illegal to knowingly hire an illegal alien.”
HOMAN: “We’re going to continue to do worksite enforcement operations, even on farms and hotels, but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first.” pic.twitter.com/KEff6TUQuR
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 19, 2025
The Trump administration’s official stance on illegal immigrant workers is that if you want to work in America and fill American jobs, then you have to use the legal programs afforded to you. Outside of this, you risk ICE deportation raids.
Secondly, for those 5 million or so illegal immigrants who are not working, we need to discount the number because some are surely children, and there needs to be a plan to make it financially impossible to stay. This is where Trump goes after the abuse of entitlement programs. (ROOKE: Trump’s Warning To California Officials Should Terrify Violent Rioters)
While the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 restricted access to entitlement programs to only “qualified aliens,” the Biden administration used a loophole to change the status of some illegal immigrants during their catch-and-release program that automatically made them eligible for programs, according to the Economic Policy Innovation Center.
The Economic Policy Innovation Center reported that, under Biden, illegal immigrants had applied for and received:
- Food Stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, “SNAP”)
- Child nutrition programs
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG)
- Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
- Child Tax Credit (CTC)
- Obamacare Premium Tax Credit
- Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- Pell Grants
- Student loans
- Head Start
- Public housing
- Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF)
An estimated 60% of illegal immigrants are on some sort of government assistance, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis indicates that the taxpayer cost to provide government benefits to “immigrants in the surge population and their children” will total $177 billion by FY 2034.
Trump has two very powerful weapons at his disposal that would cause the illegal immigrant crisis to come to a screaming halt. By making it explicitly clear that America’s job market is available to Americans and legal immigrants, Trump will stamp out the first financial incentive for people to make the dangerous trek to illegal crossing in the U.S. To close the financial tap completely, he needs to remove access to entitlement programs for illegal immigrants that the American taxpayer funds.
No jobs. No welfare. No reason to be here.
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