--- title: Donald Trump’s Immigration Hard Line Would Affect Millions description: The wall may be a fence in some places. And the ultimate fate of all of America's undocumented immigrants is still not clear. But here... canonical: https://time.com/4574499/donald-trump-immigration-hard-line/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-17T12:27:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:52:35.489Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump’s Immigration Hard Line Would Affect Millions og:description: The wall may be a fence in some places. And the ultimate fate of all of America's undocumented immigrants is still not clear. But here... og:url: https://time.com/4574499/donald-trump-immigration-hard-line/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump’s Immigration Hard Line Would Affect Millions twitter:description: The wall may be a fence in some places. And the ultimate fate of all of America's undocumented immigrants is still not clear. But here... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Donald Trump’s Immigration Hard Line Would Affect Millions by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 17, 2016 12:27 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 17, 2016 12:27 PM UTC The wall may be a fence in some places. And the ultimate fate of all of America’s undocumented immigrants is still not clear. But here are three Trump plans to look for in the first 100 days: ## 1\. Deport millions Trump has scaled back his mass-deportation target and now pledges to start by focusing on 2 million to 3 million with criminal records. Experts estimate that the real number of undocumented immigrants with records is lower. Meeting that target would require more enforcement agents, detention beds and immigration judges. “It is impossible to \[remove\] 2 million” during Trump’s first term without more resources, says John Sandweg, the former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ## **2\. Reverse DACA** The President-elect could reverse Obama’s 2012 Executive Order that gave legal status to roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. As a result, they would again be eligible for deportation and unable to get legal work permits. ## 3\. Target sanctuary cities The incoming President has vowed to restrict federal funds for cities where local authorities do not report undocumented immigrants. He could stop some grant funding unilaterally, a move several so-called sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago have pledged to resist. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4574499/donald-trump-immigration-hard-line/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4574499/donald-trump-immigration-hard-line/"},"headline":"Donald Trump’s Immigration Hard Line Would Affect Millions","datePublished":"2016-11-17T12:27:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:52:35.489Z","description":"The wall may be a fence in some places. And the ultimate fate of all of America's undocumented immigrants is still not clear. But here...","url":"https://time.com/4574499/donald-trump-immigration-hard-line/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Immigration"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4574499/donald-trump-immigration-hard-line/","name":"Donald Trump’s Immigration Hard Line Would Affect Millions"}}]}] ```