Goes Rogue: The Mass Deportation Fight Is About More Than the Border

Sign for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.

As Washington races to launch the largest deportation drive in modern history, both parties are arguing past each other while the same unaccountable machine of courts, cops, contractors, and consultants grinds on in the background.

Story Snapshot

Trump’s border chief Tom Homan promises “millions” of deportations and daily raids, while a New York socialist candidate says every single deportation is wrong.
Supporters say the plan targets criminals and will “restore” the country; critics warn of broken families, citizen children removed, and massive new federal spending.
A growing share of Americans in both parties now suspect the real winners will be the permanent security bureaucracy and private contractors, not ordinary citizens.
Harsh rhetoric on both sides feeds a “these politicians are nuts” mood, blocking honest debate about cost, fairness, and basic constitutional limits.

Two clashing visions of what deportation should be

Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan now serves as Donald Trump’s point man on immigration, and he is selling a simple story to frustrated voters: deport the “bad guys” first, then keep going until the country is “restored.” In interview after interview, he says the administration has already arrested more than 500,000 people in a year and averages about 1,200 arrests a day, proof in his view that the government can scale up to mass removal if Congress supplies enough money and agents.^[5] Supporters on the right hear this and think, at last, someone is doing his job.

On the other side, New York Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier offers an equally blunt message: “all deportations are wrong,” even for people who have served prison time for serious crimes.^[11] Old tweets and clips show her backing calls to “abolish the border” and sharply cut police and immigration enforcement.^[14] To many conservatives, that sounds like open borders. To many progressives, it sounds like finally telling the truth about a system they see as cruel and racist. To millions of others in the middle, both positions feel extreme and disconnected from daily life.

What Homan’s “shock and awe” plan really involves

Homan says the administration is onboarding 10,000 more enforcement agents and will “surge” operations in big sanctuary cities such as New York, where local leaders limit cooperation with federal immigration officers.^[3] He talks about bringing back the “Remain in Mexico” policy so asylum seekers are forced to wait outside the country and about using new laws to permanently bar legal status for anyone who ignores a final deportation order.^[2] That is a much wider dragnet than “just the criminals” and would touch people whose only offense is crossing the border or overstaying a visa.^[23]

Independent policy groups estimate this kind of mass deportation push could cost tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars when you add detention centers, transport, courts, and extra officers.^[23] One analysis put the price of removing one million people in a year at about $88 billion, and a true one-time “sweep” of the entire undocumented population at over $300 billion.^[23] Yet Homan has floated claims of “significant tax savings” without a clear breakdown of how money spent on raids, flights, and private contractors would reduce costs for regular taxpayers. That vagueness worries both fiscal conservatives who hate waste and progressives who see another windfall for well-connected companies.

Warnings from history and early fallout on families

Social work and immigration experts point out that Trump and Homan are openly modeling parts of their program on “Operation Wetback,” a 1950s mass removal campaign that is now remembered as a dark chapter filled with racial profiling and abuses.^[21] A recent policy brief warns that the current plan leans on wartime tools like the Alien Enemies Act, which lets presidents target people from “enemy” countries without normal hearings, and that the White House is prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act to send troops into communities that resist.^[21] That would deepen fears on both the left and right about using the military at home against civilians.

We are already seeing the human cost. News reports and video show at least one case where American citizen children were flown out of the country with their undocumented mother to Honduras, only to be brought back later after legal pressure.^[8] That kind of mistake cuts right through the talking points about “just enforcing the law.” It raises basic questions: if the system cannot reliably tell who is a citizen, how can it run “shock and awe” raids in thousands of neighborhoods without sweeping up people who have every right to be here?

Courts, Congress, and a government that ignores its own rules

Supporters of the crackdown often say it is illegal for local officials to “obstruct” deportation teams, yet the administration itself has already brushed aside at least one federal court order. In 2025, a district judge barred the removal of a group of Venezuelan men while their case was pending, but Homan later bragged that flights went ahead anyway and said he did not “care what the judges think.”^[6] Legal scholars warn that defying court rulings on purpose pushes the country toward a constitutional crisis where executive branch leaders act as if they are above the law.

Tom Homan blasted New York democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier over her call to end deportations, calling the stance “nuts” and warning that refusing to remove illegal immigrants, even criminals, puts Americans at risk.

Photo via Reuters pic.twitter.com/hKcVkx1di3

— TalkRadio 77 WABC (@77WABCradio) June 23, 2026

Meanwhile, Congress has been talking tough but dodging real responsibility. Some Republican leaders cheer mass deportation but have balked at fully funding the eye‑popping price tag.^[23] Democrats attack the plan as cruel but have not united behind a clear, realistic alternative that secures the border without huge roundups. Polling shows about half the country now says it supports mass deportations in theory, yet many of those same voters also say they do not trust Washington to run such a program fairly or efficiently.^[26] That is the heart of today’s frustration: both parties shout, but the permanent system of agencies, judges, and contractors keeps growing no matter who wins elections.

Why so many Americans think “these politicians are nuts”

Homan dismisses critics like Chevalier as “nuts,” while her allies call his agenda “fascist” and “cruel.” Both sides gain clicks and donations from this name‑calling, but ordinary people gain little. Parents trying to pay the bills see leaders more focused on TV hits than on fixing an immigration code that is decades out of date. Workers see a plan that could cost more than major wars yet still leave employers hungry for labor and communities torn apart.^[23]^[27] The deeper story is not left versus right. It is an overgrown security and political class making ever bigger promises, writing ever bigger checks, and rarely being held to account when those promises fail.