“Illegals must go,” Tom Homan, the incoming Border Czar, has declared — and he and President-elect Trump mean that literally. Critics have a pat response: It is not physically or financially possible to implement the largest deportation program in our history. But they’re missing a critical tool: the ability of the entire executive branch to create conditions that will help induce self-deportation by many aliens.

Trump and Homan have already indicated that they’re going to focus the Department of Homeland Security’s resources on the worst-of-the-worst, in what we can call a “catch-and-deport” program, in contrast to the “catch-and-release-or-don’t-even-bother-to-catch” program of the past four years. Their top priority is aliens who pose national security threats, as well as the murderers, rapists, burglars, arsonists, thieves, gang members and other criminals that President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas have allowed to freely roam throughout the nation.

But many other illegal aliens can and should be removed by DHS. As a former immigration judge told me, just enforcing the estimated 1.3 million final-removal orders issued by immigration judges that have been piling up at the Department of Homeland Security — sitting there ignored by the current administration — would make a significant dent in the illegal alien population.

Because these are final orders after the aliens have gone through the immigration court system, no advocacy group has any legal basis for suing the new administration to stop the aliens from being picked up and deported.

These final deportation orders are like the “letters of transit” in the classic 1942 movie “Casablanca,” where Peter Lorre says they “cannot be rescinded, not even questioned.” Not only should DHS be enforcing these orders, but to the extent needed, other federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshalls Service, should be immediately directed by the president to help DHS agents to the extent needed.

But the key to overall success is getting rid of the incentives and benefits that keep illegal aliens here. Most of them are here for one reason, and one reason only: economic. The largest proportion of illegal aliens are single, adult males. They are here to earn money that they send to their home countries. The remittances sent to Mexico alone are expected to reach $65 billion by the end of this year, one of the reasons the Mexican government has encouraged, aided, and assisted this illegal immigration.

The Trump administration must use all of the powers of the federal government to make it as difficult as possible for illegal aliens to work, find housing, travel, engage in financial transactions, and otherwise live in the country they have no right to be in, and no right to work and live in.

Here are just a few of the steps that should be taken on January 20, 2025, as soon as Donald Trump is inaugurated:

• TSA should be told to no longer permit anyone through security who is using an immigration arrest warrant or other documents issued by DHS to illegal aliens, instead of the required government-issued photo ID.
• All payments and grants being given to NGOs by DHS and any other government agency like Health and Human Services to transport, house, or otherwise provide any benefits for inadmissible, illegal aliens should be terminated.
• All work permits unlawfully issued by DHS to inadmissible illegal aliens should be terminated, and that includes any DACA beneficiaries.
• All access to any other government benefits by any executive branch agency should immediately be terminated, including access to Obamacare.
• Banking regulators, including Treasury, the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the NCUA, should require all banks and credit unions under their jurisdiction to require any individual opening a bank account to provide proof of citizenship or lawful presence in the U.S., such as a permanent resident alien.
• To the extent the president has power over the Federal Reserve system and the FDIC through his appointments, he should ensure that every appointee agrees to impose the same requirement on banks receiving benefits from the system or the FDIC. Financial regulators should ensure that aliens who are unlawfully in the U.S. cannot open bank accounts.
• The same rule should be applied to banks for all wire transfers made by those banks for their customers, as well as any other financial entities over which the federal government has jurisdiction. For foreign investors and others who are not present in the U.S., these rules would not apply and would not restrict their ability to invest and hold brokerage or other accounts in American banks.
• To the extent the president has authority over home mortgages through his appointments to executive branch agencies like the Federal Housing Administration, he should require a similar rule: no approval of federal mortgage insurance for homes, multi-family apartments, or other facilities unless the owners are verified as U.S. citizens or aliens legally in the country, and they agree not to lease or rent their properties to any individuals without requiring proof of citizenship or legal presence. That also should apply to Section 8 housing assistance provided by HUD to low-income households.
• The IRS should not provide tax refunds to aliens unlawfully present in the U.S. That is something the IRS can check through the E-Verify system maintained by DHS. The Social Security Administration should be ordered to engage in the same verification process for anyone applying for a Social Security number or other Taxpayer Identification Number, which is essential to individuals seeking tax refunds. For those who claim this would be too onerous, it would simply be applying the same requirement to federal agencies that the federal government already applies to all employers and all Americans who want to be employed. Job applicants have to provide proof of citizenship and identity as outlined in the federal I-9 “Employment Eligibility Verification form. To the extent that E-Verify does not provide an answer, those agencies could apply the provisions of the I-9 form to determine eligibility.
• The Biden administration has refused to enforce the federal law barring employers from hiring illegal aliens; the Justice Department needs to embark on a vigorous, very public, enforcement program against employers. Not only will that punish employers for breaking the law and depriving Americans of jobs, but the publicity from that should help deter many other employers from engaging in such behavior, drying up the ability of illegal aliens to work and earn a living.

Many other steps should be taken, but these basic ones would provide a solid start. It has to be an all-government effort, not just an effort by DHS.

These measures, if combined with similar steps by cooperative state governments — such as denying illegal aliens driver’s licenses and car license tags (thus limiting their transportation options) and all other types of permits and licenses — would provide an incentive for aliens to self-deport and stop abusing the generous hospitality of the U.S.

Republished from The Heritage Foundation.