Donald Trump’s choice for vice president, JD Vance, has backed calls for mass deportation of illegal immigrants to the United States, despite the fact that it is unclear how such a program would be achieved.

The junior senator from Ohio was picked by Trump at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin earlier this week and used part of his speech Wednesday to focus on immigration, an issue the GOP sees as a key element of its general election strategy.

As part of that appearance, Vance blamed the housing issues on illegal immigrants and Democrats, while also championing legal immigration.

Vance was joined by his wife, Usha, a lawyer and daughter of Indian immigrants, whom he praised for “enriching” the country.

Call for mass deportation

Like Trump, Vance has called for mass deportation of illegal immigrants — a policy the RNC formally adopted as part of its 2024 platform.

“We need to deport people, we need to deport people who broke our laws that came here, and I think we start with the violent criminals,” Vance said on Fox News this week.

“President Trump has been very, very effective in communicating this to the point where now a majority of Americans believe we should deport large numbers of people who have come here illegally.”

Campaign fundraising message shipping earlier in July from Vance’s campaign included a line supporting the move.

“We must deport every person who illegally invaded our country,” the message read.

Trump has argued that between 15 and 20 million people could be deported under his plans. The estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the US is lower than that – about 11 million.

Immigrants and jobs

Speaking in Milwaukee, Vance said immigrant workers have driven down American wages and forced American citizens out of work.

To chants of “send them back” from Republican supporters, Vance said a second Trump term would raise wages and bring back jobs he claimed had been lost in Mexico and other countries.

Vance said this started after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, which happened during Republican George W. Bush’s first term in the White House.

Immigrants and Housing

The vice presidential candidate talked about U.S. homebuilders going out of business during the 2008 financial crisis, putting a dent in new home construction that continues to this day.

“Then the Democrats flooded this country with millions of illegal aliens,” Vance said. “So citizens had to compete with people who shouldn’t even be here for valuable housing.”

According data from the Immigration Policy Instituteabout 28%, or three million, of illegal immigrants own a home, compared to about 65% of the 333 million American citizens.

Finishing the Wall

When he ran for Senate in Ohio in 2022, Vance said Republicans must finish the job of building the southwest border wall that was a 2016 campaign promise of Donald Trump.

Large sections of the wall remain unfinished, following various lawsuits and funding issues, but the Trump administration built 458 miles of new and secondary barriers between 2016 and 2020.

“On our terms”

“It’s part of that tradition that we welcome newcomers,” Vance said at the RNC, to little applause. “But when we allow newcomers into our American family, we allow them on our terms.”

He went on to talk about his wife, who was born to Indian immigrants and raised in San Diego. She cited her family as an example of immigrants enriching the country.

Usha Vance’s legacy has prompted some extremist figures in the MAGA movement to question his hardline stance on immigration, arguing that he could not hold such views because of his wife’s nationality.

“Together we will put the American people first, no matter the color of their skin,” Vance told the assembled delegates.

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