Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) stated that former President Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportation of illegal immigrants should begin with 1 million individuals.
Speaking on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Vance, who is running alongside Trump, expressed confidence in their chances of winning the November election and expanded on their immigration strategy.
These comments follow Trump’s earlier interview with TIME, where he outlined plans to deport millions of illegal immigrants if elected, using the National Guard to assist in the effort. “I don’t believe this is sustainable for a country, what’s happening to us, with probably 15 million and maybe as many as 20 million by the time Biden’s out,” Trump said. “Twenty million people, many of them from jails, many of them from prisons, many of them from mental institutions. I mean, you see what’s going on in Venezuela and other countries. They’re becoming a lot safer.”
Vance explained that he and Trump would adopt a “sequential approach” to the issue. “You start with what’s achievable,” Vance said. “I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem.”
Vance continued, “I think it’s interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let’s start with 1 million. That’s where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there.”
During the interview, Vance also discussed his views on making the U.S. more pro-family. He, along with other Republican lawmakers, has expressed concerns about the declining birthrate in the country and has advocated for pro-family policies.
He also responded to criticism over remarks he made about “childless cat ladies” on Tucker Carlson’s former Fox News show, clarifying that his words had been misrepresented. “Do I regret saying it? I regret that the media and the Kamala Harris campaign has, frankly, distorted what I said,” Vance said. “They turn this into a policy proposal that I never made. … I said, I want us to be more pro-family, and I do want us to be more pro-family.”
