Trump says he will carry out the 'largest domestic deportation operation in American history' if elected

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Former President Trump announced his plans to carry out "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history" if he is elected to a second term in the White House.

Trump, who leads the 2024 Republican primary field by a massive margin, delivered a speech in Dubuque, Iowa Wednesday evening, blasting President Biden for the "nation-wrecking catastrophe on our southern border."

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"Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in U.S. history. Now, we have the worst border in the history of the world," Trump said Wednesday— the same day that more than 4,000 predominantly Venezuelan adult illegal migrants crossed the border into Texas.

Trump, in Iowa, said that if elected, his second term would begin by "immediately" terminating "every Open Borders policy of the Biden Administration."

Former President Trump’s legal woes have been covered significantly by ABC, NBC and CBS, but prosecutors are rarely identified as Democrats, according to a new study.? (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

"Following the Eisenhower Model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," Trump said.

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The former president said he plans to also "invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove all known or suspected Gang Members, drug dealers, or Cartel Members from the United States"—an effort he says will end the "scourge of illegal alien gang violence once and for all." 

Trump also said he plans to "shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement," including parts of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

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"I will make clear that we must use any and all resources needed to stop the invasion—including moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas to our OWN southern border," Trump said, stressing that "before we defend the borders of foreign countries, we must secure the border of our country."

Trump went on to say he plans to deploy the U.S. Navy to "impose a full Fentanyl Blockade on the waters of our region—boarding and inspecting ships to look for fentanyl and fentanyl precursors."

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Earlier this year, Trump said he would deploy U.S. special forces and other military assets to "inflict maximum damage" on cartels crossing the southern border.

As for Title 42, which ended in May, Trump said he would use the provision to "end the child trafficking crisis by returning all trafficked children to their families in their home countries immediately."

Meanwhile, Trump said he plans to reinstate his 2017-era travel ban. Trump, in 2017, signed an executive order suspending entry into the U.S. for individuals from several mostly Muslim countries: Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Iran. The travel ban was updated later that year to include North Korea and Venezuela. The Trump administration expanded the ban again in January 2020 to include an additional six countries. 

President Biden repealed the order on his first day in office and instructed the State Department to restart visa processing for affected countries in an effort to "restore fairness and remedy the harms caused by the bans."

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"I will bring back the travel ban and expand it even further to keep Radical Islamic Terrorists out of our country," Trump said. "I will also use existing federal law to deny entry to all communists and Marxists to the United States."

Trump added: "Those who join our country must love our country—and we are going to keep foreign Christian-hating communists, Marxists, and socialists the hell out of America."

Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Independence Day Spectacular on Friday, June 30, 2023 in Pickens, S.C. (Sam Wolfe for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Trump has also said he would designate major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which would sever their access to global financial systems, and ask Congress to pass legislation that would ensure drug smugglers and human traffickers receive the death penalty.

"2024 is our final battle," Trump said. "With you at my side, we will demolish the Deep State, we will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and Fascists, we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country, we will rout the fake news media, we will defeat Joe Biden, and we will end illegal immigration once and for all." 

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Trump's comments come as numbers are again skyrocketing at the border. Officials have made over 45,000 migrant encounters in the last five days alone both at the ports of entry and between them, sources told Fox on Wednesday, with multiple days of over 8,000 illegal immigrant encounters.

Sources also told Fox News that there were around 230,000 migrant encounters in August -- Customs and Border Protection has not yet released its official numbers. That 230,000 would be up significantly from over 180,000 in July and 144,000 in June. August’s numbers would mark the highest month in 2023.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.