Many are asking:  “Will President-elect Trump really deport 2-3 million immigrants?”

Donald Trump has said that:

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.”

Trump’s desire to deport mass numbers of immigrants has caused fear and chilled many hearts.  However, his estimation that two to three million immigrants are criminals who should be deported is likely a gross error. If this segment of the immigrant population is assessed based on real data, undocumented immigrants who have criminal convictions are likely to number closer to 820,000, according to The Migration Policy Institute studies.  Even then, it is important to note that this number includes individuals who most of the population would not consider “criminal” and who do not fit into Trump’s own categorization of people who are drug dealers or gang members.   Many individuals with only minor traffic offenses or immigration violations on their records are counted in the 820,000.  Clearly, these are not a threat to society as they are not violent crimes.  One other point that may calm nervous souls is that for Trump to enforce such mass deportations, he would need a vast increase in the numbers of ICE officers.  There is simply no room in the budget for this, and to create so many new positions, Congressional cooperation would be required by the Trump administration.  Speaker of the House Ryan has stated that this support would not be forthcoming.  It remains to be seen how deportation will be affected by the new administration, but in the meanwhile, if you have been putting off certain steps in your immigration journey, perhaps this is the time to reassess if you can afford to procrastinate any longer!