TUCSON, ARIZ. (Kgun) — Immigration attorney Mo Goldman has been busy at work at his office, with about 30% more inquiries than he typically sees in a regular month.
President Donald Trump has expressed he is hoping to deport the most amount of people in American history.
“There is a lot of concern… at least regarding how or what’s going to happen,” Goldman said.
Looking only at the four years Trump was in office previously, he deported the highest number of people in fiscal year 2019. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that was about 267,000 migrants.
President Biden deported the largest number of migrants in the past 10 fiscal years total, with ICE saying that was in fiscal year 2024, totalling over 271,000 migrants.
“I have had a lot of people that have wanted to file certain benefits applications,” Goldman said.
Trump said he is prioritizing deporting criminals and has said he is not going to be deporting DACA students.
“And we will put the cartels quickly out of business. They’re going to be gone,” Trump said at a rally when he was running in 2024.
Pima County GOP Chairman Kathleen Winn said she’s against an open border.
“We need to deport anybody here who came here illegally and especially those who are a part of criminal gangs, cartels,” Winn said.
The Tucson Democratic Socialists Of America’s Communications Coordinator Lee Ziesche said border security can be dehumanizing.
“We need to be making sure that we are welcoming those immigrants, not spending wasteful money on the border with security,” Ziesche said.
Goldman said it can take up to five years to deport someone and it will also depend on Trump’s new laws.
“Some courts have a faster docket and some courts are much slower,” Goldman said.
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Trump has expressed hopes to use the National Guard for deportations.
In late 2023 Governor Katie Hobbs sent National Guardsmen to the Lukeville Port of Entry to help manage the influx of migrants.
“I look forward to having conversations with the incoming president about Arizona’s needs including border security,” Hobbs expressed while visiting the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales last November.
Customs and Border Protection said the Tucson sector saw the highest amount of migrants crossing in the nation around late 2023. Their reports said over 55,000 crossed.
Whatever the future holds, Goldman said undocumented migrants still have rights no matter who is president.
“Many cases they will have a right to at least a hearing in front of an immigration judge so people just need to know that there are certain rights that they have the ability to accord themselves to,” he said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.