Trump Vows to Deport Illegal Aliens at Unprecedented Scale in Speech to Conservatives

OXEN HILL, Md.—President Donald Trump slammed left-wing politicians for sending the American military abroad instead of protecting the southern border.

“After years of politicians using our military to defend foreign borders while leaving our country defenseless, helpless, we deployed a group of people, active duty troops, to defend our border and repel the invasion of our country,” Trump said on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside of Washington, D.C.

He called illegal immigration an “invasion,” adding that his first term had “great” deportation numbers, but his second term has topped them.

“We’ve never had numbers like this,” he said. “We’ve done it all in four weeks.”

Trump said that on Day One, he ended “catch and release” at the border, reinstated the Remain in Mexico policy, and ended birthright citizenship.

Catch and release is a process the Biden administration used where it would catch people illegally crossing the border and release them into the United States rather than deporting them immediately. Remain in Mexico is a policy from the first Trump administration where immigrants seeking asylum in the United States apply for asylum and wait for a determination on their claim while staying in Mexico rather than coming to the United States and waiting here—a wait that can last for years.

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve begun the largest deportation operation in American history—larger even than President Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Trump said. “Very moderate man, but he was very strong that he didn’t like people running into our country and taking over our country.”

Trump said he, too, could not stand seeing “people come in from jails, mental institutions, and the worst criminals on the street, gang members being dropped off in buses and bussed into our country.”

Deporting illegal immigrants is “liberating” to communities like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, “that have been occupied by illegal alien criminals from all over the world,” the president said.

“We’re rescuing the Americans whose jobs have been stolen, whose wages have been robbed, and whose way of life has been absolutely destroyed,” he said. “And under the Trump administration, our country will not be turned into a dumping ground. We’re not going to do it.”

Foreign countries are taking their illegal immigrants back, Trump said, including countries like Venezuela and Columbia, which originally refused.

Trump celebrated designating as a terrorist organization the violent Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which has been infiltrating the United States.

“The only thing good about them is they make our criminals look like nice people,” he said.

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