Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said he wished Trump “the best of luck” regarding the former president's pledge to expel millions of immigrants in the largest deportation program in US history.
“Former President Trump is talking about deporting 10 to 15 million people. I pray that happens… I've spent enough time in Latin America to understand the desperation of the people,” he said. [of the] People are fleeing [from] “They want to work. They're part of the underground economy,” Bratton said on the “Catsimatidis Roundtable Show” on Sunday.
“But the idea of removing 10 million or 15 million people, I don't think it's something that Trump would benefit himself or the Republican Party by bringing up,” he added.
President Trump has made immigration a top priority in his campaign to retake the White House in November.
When asked to detail his plan in an interview with Time magazine earlier this year, Trump suggested he would use the National Guard and even the military to target 15 to 20 million people, including the 11 million immigrants the administration estimates will be living in the US without legal permanent residence by 2022.
A recent Scripps News/Ipsos poll found that more than half of all Americans, including a quarter of Democrats, support mass deportations of immigrants living in the country illegally.
About 54% of respondents (86% of Republicans, 58% of independents and 25% of Democrats) said they “strongly” or “somewhat” support a massive effort to deport millions of immigrants, and 59% said they were closely monitoring “the immigration situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
The survey found that 39% of respondents cited immigration as the top issue in this year's election, making it the second biggest issue after inflation.
The Associated Press contributed.
