GOP Congressman Warns Trump on Mass Deportations: ‘We’re Here to Deport Your Abuelita’ is ‘Not Gonna Work Well’

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose Congressional District includes “the largest stretch of southern border territory” of any in the U.S., sent a warning to Donald Trump that the plan to deport undocumented migrants has to have positive messaging in order to get Americans on board.

“If the message is, ‘We’re here to deport your abuelita,’ that’s not going to work well,” Gonzales told This Week’s Martha Raddatz, using the Spanish word for grandmother. “It has to be one of holding these hardened criminals accountable.”

“But, that is the message from the Trump administration!” Raddatz exclaimed. “They are doing mass deportations. ‘Pack your bags!’ You heard Tom Holman say that.”

Former acting ICE director Homan is an immigration hardliner and Trump’s pick for border czar.

During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to implement the largest deportation plan in U.S. history. Trump said he plans to cite the The 1798 Alien Enemies Act that was last used to detain Japanese, Germans, and Italians during the Second World War.

“Now, they have said that they’ll deport criminals first, but they’ve already said, everyone else — there are 11 to 13 million undocumented workers in this country,” Raddatz continued. “So, how does this work? How do you convince them to let people who are picking fruit, stay?”

Gonzales responded, “No, I don’t exactly see it the exact same way. Months ago I reached out to ICE, and I asked for empirical data on how many convicted criminals are in our country. The number is hundreds of thousands.”

“More than 600,000,” Raddatz added.

“It’s absolutely mind-boggling,” Gonzales said.

Raddatz then asked, “So how do you even round them up? How do you have the manpower to even do that?”

“That’s where we need to focus,” Gonzales said. “I’m talking about the convicted criminal aliens, that keeps all Americans safe.”

Watch the clip above via ABC News This Week.

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