Let’s Seriously Talk About Mass Deportation

There’s a clip from the 60 Minutes interview with Tom Homan — Trump’s pick for “Boarder Tsar” — that I think really highlights how this presidency is going to look at serious issues. In it, he is asked his mass deportation plan costing eighty-eight billion dollars a year, to which he responds by saying he has no idea if that is true (which seems like something he should know) before asking “what price do you put on national security?”

This answer has so many issues that it is genuinely frustrating the interviewer failed to ask any follow-up questions. For one, obviously we should understand what the price tag for such a massive plan is — especially given it was one of the central tenets of Trump’s campaign. First off, there is a limit to what people are willing to accept in the name of their own safety — as an administration whose Attorney General once compared mask mandates during COVID-19 to slavery should know. Even limiting this discussion to the incoming administration, both Trump and his pick for National Security Advisor — former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard — have voiced opposition to Section 702 of FISA, which allows electronic wiretapping on American soil without warrants. Regardless of what you think of that, it could be used for the purpose of national security and somebody who — hypothetically, of course — was the last person to be in the White House as a…