How do you deport the roughly twenty million individuals living illegally in the United States?  For a lot of reasons, this will be a huge challenge, and likely a costly one – when was the last time the government did anything even remotely correct without it busting the budget?

Well, for one thing, you could try offering incentives for people to make their deportation easier than it might otherwise have been.  

Trump and his new Border Czar have agreed that the top priority will be removing illegals who either committed crimes before they came to the United States or – and this is the top priority – those who have committed crimes since coming to the United States.  Since these are people likely to strongly resist such deportations, this will represent a challenge to the Border Guards and ICE Agents who will have to deal with it in practical terms.

But what about the other twenty million or so people in the U.S. illegally?  How about this:

First, offer them an option.  Go home on your own, and you will be eligible to apply for legal residency, along with anyone else who wants to come to America and who hadn’t broken our laws to get here.  To qualify, all they have to do is leave – and on the way out, file documentation indicating that they had been illegal residents, but were now exercising their option to go to the end of the line and eventually be legally admitted to America.  That’s the carrot – and even though it might take ten years to gain entry, it will be legal, and with a path to eventual citizenship, the one open to everyone who plays by the rules.

What about the stick?  Tell this same population that if the government has to take actions to deport them, they will have to wait for more than the current ten years before even getting to the end of the line for legal immigration, lengthening the time before they can return to America, but this time as legal immigrants.  Since anybody here illegally has at least the chance of running into legal problems and then forcibly deported, many will leave voluntarily.

Now, how about those who are here illegally who had come from their native country’s prisons in an “if you let me out I will leave” deal between them and their home-country’s criminal justice system?  Before we spend mega-bucks trying to identify, track down and forcibly deport them, offer them a modified version of the program (above) for illegals who arrived here without a criminal record?   Here’s the carrot:  If you voluntarily leave the U.S., and file a notice of your departure while acknowledging your criminal record prior to their illegal immigration, you, too, would be eligible to return, getting in the end of the line in ten (or perhaps twenty) years. 

That would be a long wait, but likely longer than the prison sentence they got out of by agreeing leave prison and come to the U.S.  It’s not a great carrot, but consider the following:

The stick would be, if you came here illegally after being released from prison in your homeland for felony crimes of any sort, as well as violent misdemeanors, and instead of voluntarily leaving you wait to be caught by ICE or the Border Patrol, you will serve out your prison sentence – plus ten years – before being deported; and once back in your home country, you will never be allowed back into the U.S. under any terms.  If you serve your sentence here and then are deported, and sneak back in, you will be imprisoned for a no-parole term of at least ten years before again being ejected from America.  Repeat offenders will face a life-without-parole sentence here in the U.S.

Finally, for those who had been charged as criminals in their home country but who had not yet been convicted and incarcerated, if you choose to leave on your own, and – as above – you register with ICE regarding your status and reason for leaving, you would be for return to the U.S. under the following terms.  First, to be eligible to get in line for legal immigration, you’d have to the resolve the legal issues you’d fled to America to avoid, either by going to trial and being acquitted, or for being convicted and having served the full term imposed by the judge.  At that point, and after ten years post-resolution, you’d be eligible to return to the immigration line after ten years.  

The stick here is that if you have to be caught and deported, you would not be eligible for legal re-entry until twenty years after the resolution of your legal issues in your home country.

Obviously, certain types of crimes would make illegals ineligible for return under any circumstances.  Such exceptions might include anyone convicted of murder, of sexual assault, or especially child sexual abuse, and other violent crimes – and of course, gang members, either here or in their home country.  Such persons would be incarcerated in the U.S. for a period of ten years before being deported without appeal.  Any attempt to return to the U.S. after being deported would be punished by from twenty-five years to life without parole.  For people who are murderers, violent criminals or those who abuse people sexually – for whom recidivism is statistically almost impossible – they should be punished for being here, then sent home, and punished far more harshly if they attempt to re-enter the United States.

This will not solve the problems of mass deportation of illegals, not when there are an estimated more than twenty million illegal immigrants residing in the United States.  But by offering a meaningful carrot – with hefty “stick” penalties for those who break the revised rules for illegals who are also criminals – we have a decent chance of vastly reducing the numbers of people the government will need to search for, find and hold for deportation.  As President Obama proved, it is possible to deport at least five million people without difficulty or harsh public outcry.

Ned Barnett is a long-time political operative and widely-published author who has focused on important issues facing America.  In addition, he is currently working on a book, slated for publication in late 2025 or early 2026 on how to win political campaigns, based on experience dating to the 1976 campaign, where he worked for President Ford’s South Carolina campaign.  He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 702-561-1167.

Image: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, via Picryl // public domain