Trump to carry out mass deportations: Analyst

US President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his plans to deport illegal immigrants, saying that approximately two to three million "criminals" will be either expelled or jailed when he takes office. However, in an attempt to ease rising concerns among immigrant families, US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said that Trump was not likely to forcibly remove immigrants.  

Brian Becker, a member of the ANSWER Coalition, believes there are some changes in Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric but it is clear that he intends to carry out “mass deportations”.

“He is now saying he is not going to deport all [11] million undocumented immigrants in the United States which is what he was promising in those souped-up campaign rallies. He now is saying we are just going to go after the criminal elements within the immigrant community,” the analyst told Press TV.

However, he said, there are not three million criminals among the illegal immigrants, adding that Trump is just “using language loosely”.

Commenting on Paul Ryan’s remarks on deporting immigrants, the analyst noted the anti-Trump protests across US cities have “instilled fear” in the political elites, including within the Republican Party establishment.

“So at one hand Trump is trying to tell his very xenophobic anti-immigrant base, yes we are going to deport three million people and at the same time Paul Ryan appearing with Trump says no, we are not going to do mass deportations. Again that is out of the fear of the growing protest movement that has brought probably more than a million people into the streets in the United Sates in the last days,” he stated.  

Becker further opined that the street protests are going to continue in the United States, arguing that it is impossible for any politician to ignore hundreds of thousands of people who are in the streets day after day, night after night.

“The people have a lot of power. It is not an exercised power. It is not an official power, it is a grassroots power but it obviously plays a factor in the calculations of politicians including of course the Republican Party establishment,” he said.  

According to the analyst, the protests are not about Trump the person but they are about his policies banning Muslims, deporting immigrants, in other words targeting and demonizing communities, whipping up racial and religious hatred and bigotry.

Since Trump’s election, tens of thousands of protesters have been holding rallies in various cities across the US, urging him to resign over his racist and divisive campaign pledges.

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