'Remigration': Trump continues attacks on immigrants with new vow of forced deportations

16 September 2024

Donald J. Trump/Gage Skidmore/Flickr/Creative Commons

Donald Trump is continuing to target immigrants, and focusing his attacks on swing states in which he is struggling in the polls – and he's getting support for his efforts from some top names in the GOP. Five days after his lie migrants from Haiti are "eating the dogs" and "eating the cats" of the residents of Springfield, Ohio, Trump, apparently for the first time, invoked language used by the far-right in Europe to vow he will forcibly deport millions of immigrants from those swing states and the rest of the country if elected President in November.

Saturday night Trump called for "remigration," the forceful deportation of immigrants, including those in the U.S. under lawful and unlawful circumstances. He vowed to "end the migrant invasion of America," and falsely characterized some programs that allow legal entry to the U.S. under law.

"As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America," Trump posted on his Truth Social website. "We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration)."

He also promised to "save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and all across America."

Trump is losing in four of those five battleground states, according to FiveThirtyEight's current polling average: Minnesota (Harris +6.2%), Wisconsin (Harris +2.6%), Michigan (Harris +1.5%), Pennsylvania (Harris +0.6%), and North Carolina (Trump +0.5%).

Remigration is advocated by some in the European far-right, nationalist, and fascist movements.

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right nationalist who promotes anti-immigration and anti-Islam positions, viewed remigration as so extreme she broke with her allies over it. Earlier this year Politico Europe reported Le Pen said "that she was in 'total disagreement' with the reported discussions on 'remigration.'" Those discussions included the forced deportation of some French citizens, who were described as "unassimilated citizens."

Le Pen is supported by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, a far-right Christian nationalist and extremist. Trump frequently praises Orbán, and during last week's presidential debate held him up as a top supporter.

Trump's use of the term "remigration" caught the eye of experts, including attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

Pointing to the ex-president's use of the phrase "remigration," Reichlin-Melnick writes: "Wikipedia describes it as a 'far-right and Identitarian political concept' largely used to describe the mass deportation of non-white immigrants and their descendants from Europe."

Noted professor of history Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarians, fascism, and propaganda, responded that Trump "knows what he is doing. He chooses his words carefully."

Trump's call for "remigration" also caught the eye of some top Republicans.

“I think his immigration policies to repatriate the illegals and close the border will also help because that’s going to make it less likely that those folks will be able to vote,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News on Sunday, as Florida Politics reported.

And Trump's architect of migrant child separation, Stephen Miller, hailed his former boss's "remigration" vision:

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