17:56 GMT
Image source, ReutersTom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”, says at least 100,000 beds are needed for the deportation of undocumented migrants and is urging Congress to provide the funding for the operation.
The logistics and costs of deportation remain a challenge, with millions of undocumented migrants estimated to be in the US. When asked by ABC News how they could all be deported, Tom Homan says: “Well, I’ll leave it up to Congress.”
He says it is up to the Washington lawmakers to provide funding for the large-scale deportation effort that the Trump administration is undertaking, which will require “at a minimum of 100,000” beds for detention centres.
“Congress needs to come to the table quick and give us the money we need to secure that border,” he says.
Democrats have criticised the effort to fund these centres, and they have suggested that it could be left ot private prison companies to fulfill the need for them.
The House of Representatives just passed the Laken Riley Act, which will greatly expands the immigration authorities’ power to detain migrants if it becomes law and could reportedly cost $83b (£67b) over the next three years.
“We’re seeing a fundamental erosion of civil rights in this bill,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said after it passed last week. “If a person is so much as accused of a crime, if someone wants to point a finger and accuse someone of shoplifting, they will be rounded up and put into a private detention camp and sent out for deportation without a day in court.”