Trump border czar privately tempers Republican lawmaker expectations on administration’s initial deportation operation

President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has privately told Republican lawmakers to temper their expectations for the incoming administration’s initial deportation operation, citing limited resources, according to multiple sources involved in the conversations.

President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has privately told Republican lawmakers to temper their expectations for the incoming administration’s initial deportation operation, citing limited resources, according to multiple sources involved in the conversations. While Trump’s allies have floated measures to detain and deport people residing in the US illegally, the plans largely depend on the resources and funds available to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which historically has had budget shortfalls. “We are not having a discussion about 20 million (deportations). We are having a discussion about an order, and priority, and expectation,” GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, who was in one of the meetings with Homan, told CNN. The discussions are part of a broader level-setting that is occurring among House Republicans, who are now coming to terms with the challenges of turning one of their key campaign promises into a reality. Republicans are also grappling with the harsh realization that most of their border overhaul measures are unlikely to be included in Trump’s massive agenda bill, given the strict rules around the reconciliation process that require proposals to either increase revenue or reduce spending, not change policy. “Many members are only now beginning to understand that,” one GOP lawmaker told CNN. Trump has vowed to launch the largest deportation operation in history, telling Time Magazine in December he believes there will be “probably 15 and maybe as many as 20 million” undocumented immigrants in the US by the time he takes office.