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A top columnist in Washington reports there already are indications that illegal aliens in the United States are self-deporting after Donald Trump's election victory on Tuesday, in light of the promises the president-elect has made to crack down on illegal immigration.
Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard cited a source saying that some illegal aliens in Virginia left for the border on Wednesday, the day Trump was declared the winner.
Immigration, along with health care and jobs, are the top three agenda items Trump has adopted, according to comments he made after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday.
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"We have a lot to do. We're going to work very strongly on immigration, health care and we're looking at jobs, big-league jobs," he said.
Trump will be working with a Republican House and a Republican Senate when he takes office in January.
Bedard noted that some 1.4 million illegals "who followed President Obama's request to sign up for two controversial amnesty programs could be among the first to face deportation under the new administration.
"The reason: In exchange for getting into the two programs, they handed over their identities, home addresses, and admitted to being in the United States illegally, making them the easiest to find and legally deport," he wrote.
He quoted John Miano of the Center for Immigration Studies, who said: "I was surprised anyone would be stupid enough to sign up for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans). Yet apparently hundreds of thousands of people did so anyway."
The government list has an estimated 1.4 million names already.
Illegal immigration across the nation's southern border is one of two immigration issues confronting the United States. The second is legal immigration of mostly Muslims, under federally funded programs, from Syria and other parts of the Middle East.
Trump has promised to address that issue also, because of concerns the U.S. is allowing terrorists to come into the U.S. along with the needy.
Andy Semotiuk in Forbes said Trump's plans include "deporting 11 million unlawfully present immigrants, building a wall on the Mexican border to be paid by Mexico and blocking certain Muslims from terrorism-related areas from immigrating to the United States."
He doubted millions would be deported, because of the costs, but pointed out Obama's orders creating DACA and DAPA easily can be reversed.
"Similarly, the current policy of prosecutorial discretion that shelters some unlawful immigrants by focusing on violent criminal deportations as a priority, could be cancelled by a new Trump executive order," he said.
"Clearly Trump will want to stem the tide of Syrian refugees coming to the United States. He spoke in particular about blocking Muslim immigration from the areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies. That's likely to come in the early days of Trump's presidency," he wrote.
Trump already has advocates for his objectives in Congress.
"In the area of employment, some immigration attorneys expect difficulty in expanding the H-1B visa program not only because of Trump, but also because Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa, will be leading opponents of easing H1B work visa requirements by Congress. Instead of expanding who may come in under the H-1B program, which is particularly needed by many high tech companies in Silicon Valley, it is more likely that Congress will increase the prevailing wage required and introduce an American-worker-first element," the Forbes commentary said.
The London Daily Mail reported shortly before the election that Trump said he was willing to "work with them," meaning those in the nation illegally.
"The new statement to [Anderson] Cooper indicates that The Donald would expect illegal immigrants to self-deport and then come back and pay taxes and do other things to gain legal status, which clarified part of Trump's plan," the report said.
According to Politifact, among the options in Trump's plans are a wall along the southern border, the end of "catch-and-release" on the border, the deportation of criminals, the end of sanctuary cities where federal immigration laws are suspended, the end of Obama's grants of amnesty, and more screening.
WND columnist Devvy Kidd pointed out that overturning a few court precedents and depriving illegal aliens of support from federal taxpayers would make a big difference.
"Should Donald Trump get elected," she wrote before the election, "he can sign [a] bill into law and we will see mass self-deporting because there would no more gravy train on the backs of hardworking Americans.
"Illegal aliens lie to obtain employment. They steal jobs from millions of Americans who do want to work – especially in construction. Illegals have bankrupted hospitals and drained budgets of school districts depriving natural born and naturalized American children of a better education. They cheat the system daily and steal the identity of hundreds of thousands of Americans across this country to obtain employment, making the lives of those victims hell. You don't reward such unlawful behavior with amnesty or any pathway to citizenship; you deport them," she wrote.
"This isn't about compassion. Do we feel compassion for a bank robber? This isn't about how nice an illegal alien might be; it's about our laws. It doesn't matter if the illegal has been here five minutes or 50 years. They know if caught they will be deported. This isn't about breaking up families. Illegal minors who will be deported right along with the parent(s) should blame their parents for smuggling them across the border in violation of our laws."
WND columnist Chuck Norris also wrote recently: "First, our next president and Congress must stop the intensive flow of illegal immigration on our southern border by erecting a wall and bolstering its security by whatever means necessary. Nothing can replace it. Where ports are also a problem, they too must be better secured. Until we stop the porous illegal pathways, we fight in vain for a real immigration solution."
He said a second move must be to refocus and redirect legal immigration, and the nation's "open-door policy" needs to be re-evaluated.
He said officials "need to be intentional and selective but fair in the flow of future immigration."
"They need to turn off the spigots in certain areas and turn them on in others. We need to treat all people without prejudice, but we need not fear restricting temporary flows of certain peoples. We need to better manage the ebbs and flows (temporary openings, closings and restrictions) of immigration streams into our country."
Those being brought into the United States from the Middle East are in a different situation, as they are legal.
However, Trump is concerned that thousands are virtually unknown, and the U.S. could be importing terror along with legitimate refugees.
After Trump's election, the Refugee Resettlement Watch blog speculated about Trump's promises to address the issue.
Wrote Ann Corcoran on the site: "If funds are slashed, the numbers to be resettled in your towns and cities will be slashed because as I have told you ad nauseum the resettlement contractors have little money of their own. They need your tax dollars or they wither and die."
In an email to Newsweek, Corcoran reported, Vidhya Manivannan, a former worker at Church World Service, one of nine U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, said, "If [a President Trump] decide[s] to cut the state funds or federal funds for refugees, refguee resettlement will collapse and we won't be able to bring in any refugees to this country."
Corcoran pointed out that Trump will have the authority to suspend such discretionary spending, which has the "refugee resettlement industry" in a panic.
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