Trump Wanted To Arrest 3,000 Immigrants A Day. He Didn’t Realize 1 Very Important Thing.
Ian Kumamoto
Thefirsttime I learned of Donald Trump’s political aspirations was in 2015, when he announced his intent to run for president and made a speech claiming that Mexico was sending scores of violent criminals over the border.
As an immigrant from Mexico, hearing him talk about my community in that way was jarring. But like many others, I didn’t think he could actually rise to power, given his political inexperience and, well, his personality.
Ten years later and just a few months into his second presidential term, Trump is just as eager to purge the U.S. of its Latin American immigrants. This time around, he’s realizing it won’t be as easy as he thought.
When he started his second presidential term, Trump was ambitious. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller announced in May that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would seek to arrest at least 3,000 immigrants per day to reach the administration’s mass deportation goals, as severaloutletsreported.
The number is outlandish; it’s assumed that he’s looking for people who have committed crimes, but those who are paying attention are seeing it play out differently.
In a court filing last week, Justice Department lawyers said the Department of Homeland Security had never actually set such a quota for arrests and deportations, The Guardian reported.
This sudden amnesia about that lofty quota feels a bit suspect. Trump’s whole campaign was run on the premise of arresting and deporting as many undocumented people as possible. In his process of trying to get rid of them, it seems that Trump is learning how beautifully entwined immigrants are in the fabric of this country.
The backtracking on this 3K-a-day quota might boil down to the reality that there aren’t nearly as many undocumented criminals as the administration had hoped. ICE has resorted to arresting people who are leaving immigration courts, some of whom are in the middle of seeking legal asylum. Even when allegedly playing dirty, the administration has managed to deport only around 700 people per day. On top of that, 65% of the immigrants detained since last October have no criminal convictions, according to the Cato Institute.
It’s fascinating to see the administration run into the limitations of its own narrative about immigrants. The way I see it, its only choice now is to try and gaslight us and say there was never a goal for how many people it wanted to arrest and deport.
It makes sense, though, when you consider that there are approximately 11 million undocumented people in the U.S., most of whom are contributing to and deeply ingrained in our communities and our economy—so much so that the agricultural industry has even pushed back on mass deportations.
Growing up in Texas, my family had friends who had first arrived in the U.S. undocumented and eventually obtained citizenship. Some of them went on to become doctors, teachers, or had their own businesses. Their status was not something they talked about openly, and likely not something the people around them knew. What many don’t realize is that there are immense financial and social barriers to obtaining U.S. citizenship that make it pretty difficult for most. Some immigrants even have to win a lottery to get in — literally.
When I was 15, my own family’s immigration status was challenged, and we had to leave the U.S. When we did, many of my friends were shocked — I spoke fluent English and was active in school activities, and they just assumed I was like any other American kid. Like millions of others, we didn’t fit neatly into any of Trump’s stereotypes about who immigrants are.
These stereotypes, instead of fading as this country gets more diverse, are being amplified even further during this administration. It’s time for a reality check.
Related…
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- Immigrants At Florida Detention Facilities Faced Life-Threatening Medical Delays, Report Says
- ‘They Are The Community!’: Conan O’Brien Gets Emotional Defending Immigrants In LA
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Marjorie Taylor Greene Tells ’60 Minutes’ That ‘It Would Shock People’ to Hear How Congressional Republicans Talk About Trump in Private
Jennifer Bowers Bahney
Mon, December 8, 2025 at 4:41 AM GMT+7
2 min read
https://s.yimg.com/rx/ev/builds/1.14.53/pframe.htmlYahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
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Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who’s been in a war of words with President Donald Trump over the Epstein files, says “it would shock people” to hear how Congressional Republicans talk about the president behind his back.
Greene has said she will not run for reelection after Trump called her a “traitor” for siding with the female victims of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein by signing the discharge petition.
Greene said Trump’s insults have garnered her death threats by die-hard MAGA supporters.
In a preview of Sunday’s 60 Minutes on CBS, Lesley Stahl confronted Greene about whether Republicans support Trump because they’re afraid of him.
“I’m going to ask you about this almost solid support [Trump] has among Republicans in Congress,” Stahl began. “Is there, in that support, fear? Does the support come about because they’re afraid they’ll get death threats?” Stahl asked.
“I think they’re terrified to step out of line and get a nasty Truth Social post on them, yes,” Greene said.
STAHL: And they’re watching what happened to you.
GREENE: Yes.
STAHL: Behind the scenes, do they talk differently?
GREENE: Yes.
STAHL: How?
GREENE: Oh, it’s — it would shock people.
STAHL: Well, let’s shock people.
GREENE: Okay, I’ve watched many of my colleagues go from making fun of him, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him — to when he won the primary in 2024. They all started — excuse my language, Lesley — kissing his ass and decided to put on a MAGA hat for the first time.
In a separate clip Greene said Trump warned her that releasing the Epstein files “was going to hurt people.”
“We did talk about the Epstein files,” Greene said. “And he was extremely angry at me that I had signed the discharge petition to release the files. I fully believe that those women deserve everything they’re asking. They’re asking for all of it to come out. They deserve it. And he was furious with me.”
The full interview airs at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday. Watch the preview clip above.
The post Marjorie Taylor Greene Tells ’60 Minutes’ That ‘It Would Shock People’ to Hear How Congressional Republicans Talk About Trump in Private first appeared on Mediaite.View comments(4k)
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Trump tariffs live updates: Trump unveils $12 billion bailout for US farmers as tariffs bite
Updated Tue, December 9, 2025 at 12:38 PM GMT+7
President Trump on Monday unveiled $12 billion in aid to US farmers, as the agricultural sector deals with the fallout from his sweeping tariff policies. Trump and other top administration officials discussed the package at a roundtable event with farmers at the White House.
The sector has been hit particularly hard from the president’s ever-changing trade policies, as they have struggled to sell crops and been hit by higher costs. Soybean exports have come in particular focus, with trade slowing to a crawl as China virtually halted its purchases before the countries agreed to a trade truce in October.
Trump said the money for farm relief would come from a “small portion” of tariff-related revenues.
The farm bailout comes as US Supreme Court is poised in the weeks ahead to decide the legality of the majority of President Trump’s tariffs. The president invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to levy blanket tariffs on goods from other countries. But Congress is the branch of the US government with oversight of taxation and spending — not the president.
As he has publicly braced for the high court’s decision, Trump has claimed the “full benefit” of tariff policies would take effect soon, arguing that foreign buyers who stockpiled inventory would be forced to buy more goods. Meanwhile, Trump has asked the Department of Justice and the Federal Commission to investigate the US food supply chain for possible price fixing to drive up costs of goods such as meat, especially by foreign companies.
The push to reduce food prices comes after electoral wins for Democrats across a number of key state and local races where candidates stressed affordability concerns. Trump has also in recent weeks floated the possibility of a tariff “dividend” for many Americans in the form of a $2,000 check.
Read more: What Trump’s tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
What else to know about Trump’s tariffs:
- China’s trade surplus in goods exceeded $1 trillion for the first time this year, meaning it exported more goods to other countries than it imported. Its shipments to the US, however, dropped 29% amid trade war between the two nations.
- US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Politico that Trump is considering exiting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Currently, under the USMCA, both Canada and Mexico pay little to no tariffs on products that meet the agreement’s rule of origin.
- Several US companies, such as Costco (COST), have filed lawsuits and claims to the US government for tariff refunds in the belief Trump’s tariffs will be struck down by the US Supreme Court. If the courts rule against Trump’s tariffs, the president may be forced to repay billions of dollars in collected revenue from imports, according to a report in the New York Times.
