Washington:
President-elect Donald Trump is determined to not do business with countries that refuse to take back migrants.
“I’ll get them into every country, or we won’t do business with those countries,” Trump said in an interview with Time magazine after being picked as the 2024 “Person of the Year”. This is the second time he has been honoured with the title. He was recognised for his “historic comeback”.
“I want them out, and the countries have got to take them back, and if they don’t take them back, we won’t do business with those countries, and we will tariff those countries very substantially,” he added.
As Trump had already made clear by making border security and immigration policies the cornerstone of his campaign.
He said that he will make business “very hard” for countries that refuse to take back migrants, and they will be slapped with “substantial tariffs”.
“Whatever it takes to get them out. I don’t care. Honestly, whatever it takes to get them out. Again, I’ll do it absolutely within the confines of the law, but if it needs new camps, but I hope we’re not going to need too many because I want to get them out, and I don’t want them sitting in camp for the next 20 years.”
The soon-to-be 47th president also said that he does not want families to be separated, so regardless of their immigration status, parents and children will be deported together.
He reiterated that the US will let people in but only legally.
“We don’t want people to come in from jails. We don’t want the jails of Venezuela and many other countries, and not just South American countries. We don’t want the jails to be opened up into our country. We’re not accepting their prisoners. We’re not accepting their murders. We’re not accepting their people from mental institutions. We’re not doing it”, he said.
Trump emphasised that he intends to deport illegal immigrants by military force. “We’ll get National Guard, and we’ll go as far as I’m allowed to go, according to the laws of our country,” he answered.