At the 2024 Republican convention, a chilling sight unfolded as people cheered and held signs supporting mass deportations. The cheers during the RNC make it clear the GOP is all in on Trump’s Project 2025 plan. A key part of Trump’s Project 2025 is the alarming proposal to round up 12 million people for mass deportation, leading to the creation of concentration camps. It is not a threat; these actions are written down as part of Trump’s Project 2025 plan if he becomes president.
The number of people rounded up by a second Trump presidency might even be higher than 12 million. In a TIME interview, Trump said he wanted to “deport 15-20 million people.”
The Republican nominee for president told TIME he’d use the national guard and local police to help him. But Trump noted, “If I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military.”
Hillary Clinton tweeted mass deportations are a key part of the Republican agenda:
A mass deportation policy would rip apart American families and devastate our economy.
It’s also such a centerpiece of the Republican Party agenda that they had literal signs made. pic.twitter.com/81jC0F7CzO
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 18, 2024
Concentration Camps Are Part of Trump’s Project 2025
In the TIME interview, Trump tried to brush off questions about concentration camps. Like his stance on abortion, the former president knows mass deportation of millions of people is very unpopular.
But The Guardian reports that Trump’s hardline advisor Stephen Miller promised that deportation and camps would be a core part of Trump’s second presidency. In an interview with rightwing extremist Charlie Kirk, Miller said, “I want everybody to understand this is going to happen. If President Trump is back in the Oval Office in January, this is going to commence immediately.”
Immigration attorney David Leopold told The Guardian:
“This time we need to take Trump at his word. When he talks about mass deportation – in boxcars, or bus loads, or planes, or whatever – that’s what he’s going to do.”
Another expert chimed in after watching the Republicans cheer about mass deportations:
As an expert on concentration camps, I’ll chime in to say that yes, the Republican mass deportations will include concentration camps.
— Andrea Pitzer (@andreapitzer) July 18, 2024
Won’t Just Be Immigrants in Concentration Camps
Leopold, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, noted that U.S. citizens will also be rounded up. The immigration attorney told The Guardian:
“Trump will have his agents remove people, then ask questions later. If somebody looks like they’re undocumented, meaning they have brown or black skin or speak with an accent, they could be included irrespective of their citizenship.”
Expert Andrea Pitzer reminded people that political dissidents and rebels against a dictatorship are the first ones put into camps. Pitzer tweeted:
Concentration camps rose out of 19th-century military strategies designed to crush terrorists and rebels by creating holding areas for noncombatants, though it was understood even then that their use would cause *civilians* horrific suffering.
J.D. Vance Champions Project 2025 and Follow the Money
If you think Trump’s running mate will soften Trump’s views on immigration, think again. J.D. Vance loves Project 2025’s immigration program, even though he is married to a woman who is a first-generation American.
Another sign that the Trump-Vance ticket is serious about concentration camps? Just follow the money to the private prison corporation GEO Group:
NEW: The private prison behemoth GEO Group became the first corporation whose PAC maxed out to Donald Trump’s campaign in February. The same month, the company used a subsidiary to give an additional $500k to a pro-Trump super PAC.https://t.co/6xFBWQ2xFY
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) July 3, 2024
The Stakes of Trump’s Project 2025 Immigration Plan
A video of MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff sums up Trump’s horrifying comments about immigration during his RNC acceptance speech:
I have to tell you, Rachel, it’s an almost unspeakable feeling to be in a room that’s such a celebratory nature and hear the man behind me talk about deporting more people than President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954 in operation with a name so racist that it’s not appropriate to say on television.
Watch Soboroff’s video. Then tell everyone you know about Project 2025.
We made a Project 2025 resource page with a roundup of the best links, explainers and videos about Trump’s plan: https://bit.ly/45N0L67
Legal expert and analyst Tristen Snell lays out Trump’s Project 2025 immigration plan for what it is:
When Republican delegates hold “MASS DEPORTATION NOW” signs, think what that really means.
Trump — and his cronies behind Project 2025 — said they will put 12 MILLION people in concentration camps.
Including children. Parents. Spouses.
A vote for Trump is a vote for THAT.
— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) July 19, 2024
