JD Vance compares deportation effort to ‘a really big sandwich’ (2024)

Campaigning at western Pennsylvania VFW post on Thursday, Ohio Sen. JD Vance compared the mass deportations planned by former President Donald Trump for his second administration to how one would eat "a really big sandwich" larger than their mouth, explaining the effort to expel the population of what Vance claimed be 20 to 30 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. would require the federal government to take “bites of the problem until you get illegal immigration to a serviceable point.”

Responding to a reporter's question about whether Trump’s promised “largest deportation operation in American history” would require a Trump-Vance administration to use the National Guard to round up millions of people, Vance said he didn’t know, but didn’t rule it out.

“People always say, Well, isn't it really difficult logistically to get all these illegal immigrants out of the country? Well, first of all, the first thing you have to do is stop the bleeding,” Vance said. “The second thing is, okay, well, ‘now that we've gotten illegal immigration as close to zero as physically possible, what are you and President Trump going to do about the 20 million illegal aliens who are here?’ And I think of it, it's kind of like somebody asking me, ‘well, that's a really big sandwich. It's 10 times the size of your mouth. How are you possibly going to eat the whole thing?’”

While estimates vary and an exact number is difficult to determine, the number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. is likely much lower than what Vance claimed. Using Census Bureau data, Pew Research Center estimated there were around 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. in 2022, which would still be less than the record-high 12.2 million estimated to live in the U.S. in 2005.

Speaking to reporters in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Vance continued to explain that “you take the first bite and then you take the second bite, and then you take the third bite.”

“Let's start with the first million who are the most violent criminals, who are the most aggressive. Get them out of here. First prioritize them, and then you see where you are, and you keep on taking bites of the problem, until you get illegal immigration to a serviceable point,” he added.

He went on to say he wasn’t sure if the plan would require using the National Guard, but said that a Trump-Vance administration would “use every law enforcement tool at our disposal to get illegal immigration under control” and called it the campaign’s “most important promise.”

Inan interview with Spectrum Newson Tuesday, Trump said he would employ local police to assist in deportations.

“Our local police know everything about these criminals that have come into the country. They know their names and their middle name, they know where they live, what country they came from," he said. "We’ll work with the local police and we have to get them out and you’re going to want them out and everybody’s going to want them out.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign called that policy proposal “Trump’s latest unhinged policy” and “dangerous and bizarre” in a statement on Tuesday.

A draconian response to immigration has long been central to Trump’s political campaigns and 2024 is no different. At nearly every rally and public appearance, Trump has promised mass deportations and his campaign has handed out signs at the Republican National Convention and other events promoting the slogan “Mass Deportation Now!” Trump has cited as inspiration the Eisenhower administration’sOperation Wetback— which used a slur for Mexicans for its title and, by some estimates, resulted in the deportation of more than one million people, including U.S. citizens. Trump has never publicly referred to the operation by its name, but frequently speaks of it and references Eisenhower.

“Gen. Eisenhower, President Eisenhower, he was very strong on borders. He felt that you cannot do this. The largest deportation operation we ever had was under Dwight Eisenhower, president,” Trump said in a North Carolina speech on Wednesday. “But what he went through is peanuts compared to what we're going through.”

Appearing on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, Vance spoke similarly as he did on Thursday about how he thinks the next Trump administration should approach their deportation goals.

“I think that you take a sequential approach to it, you are going to have to deport some people. If you're not willing to deport a lot of people, you're not willing to have a border when there are 20 million illegal aliens in our country,” Vance said.

When pressed by host Jon Karl on what those deportations would look like -- “do you go knock on their doors and ask people for their papers?” -- Vance said he would start by deporting the first million and take it from there.

“I think it's interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let's start with one million,” Vance said. “That's where Kamala Harris has failed, and then we can go from there.”