SAN DIEGO (AP) — “Build the Wall” was Donald Trump’s rallying cry in 2016, and Trump made good on his promise by tapping military budgets for hundreds of miles of border wall with Mexico. “Mass Deportation” was the buzzword energizing supporters for his run for the White House in 2024.

Trump’s victory paves the way for a swift crackdown after an attack AP VoteCast poll It showed that the president-elect’s supporters are largely focused on immigration and inflation; These were issues the Republican emphasized throughout his campaign.

It is unclear how and when Trump’s actions on immigration will take shape.

While Trump and his advisers offer the outlines, many questions remain They explained how they would deport nearly 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally. How will immigrants be determined? Where would they be detained? What if their country refuses to take them back? Where will Trump find the money and trained officers to carry out their deportations?

Trump said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country with which the United States is at war. He mentioned the deployment of the National Guard, which could be activated by order of the governor. Stephen Miller, a senior Trump adviser, said troops led by sympathetic Republican governors would send troops to nearby states that refuse to participate.

Trump, who has repeatedly stated that immigrants “poison the blood” of the United States, has created fear in immigrant communities with his words alone.

Julie Moreno, a US citizen who has been married for seven years to a Mexican man who is in the country illegally, is trying to get used to the idea that she may have to live apart from her husband, who came to the US in 2004. He could move from New Jersey to Mexico, but it would be nearly impossible for him to maintain his business by importing boxing gloves.

“I don’t have words yet, there are so many emotions,” Moreno said Wednesday, his voice breaking as he talked about Trump’s victory. “I am very afraid for my husband’s safety. … What happens if they arrest him?”

Moreno’s husband, Neftali Juarez, runs a construction business and feels that he is contributing to the country by paying taxes and providing employment through his company. “Unfortunately, the sensitivity of voters is different,” he said. “I feel so bad when I lose my wife.”

Some policy experts expect Trump’s first immigration push to be at the border. Can put pressure on Mexico continue to block immigrants From reaching the US border, as it has been since December. He can count on Mexico to reinstate Trump-era policy. Asylum seekers kept waiting in Mexico For hearings in US immigration court.

Andrew Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports the immigration restrictions, pointed out Vice President-elect J.D. Vance’s campaign statements that the deportation of millions of people would be done one by one, not all at once.

“You’re not talking about a troubled network,” Arthur, a former immigration judge, told The Associated Press. “There’s no way to do this. The first thing you need to do is close the border and then you can solve the problems in the interior. “All of this will be driven by the resources you have.”

Elena, a 46-year-old Nicaraguan who has been living in the United States illegally for 25 years, couldn’t sleep after Trump’s victory and cried about what she would do if she and her 50-year-old husband were deported. They have two adult daughters, both U.S. citizens, who are experiencing stomach pain and breathing problems due to election anxiety.

“It’s very difficult for me to tear myself away from the country I call home,” said Elena, who lives in South Florida and gave only her first name for fear of deportation. “I’ve established my roots here, and it’s hard to have to give up everything to start over.”

Heidi Altman, director of federal advocacy for the National Immigration Act, said attorneys are investigating where deportation arrests might occur, and authorities are watching particularly closely to see if they are complying with a longstanding policy of staying away from schools, hospitals, places of worship and disaster relief centers. The Center’s Immigrant Justice Fund.

“We take this very seriously,” Altman said. “We all need to keep our eyes wide open to realize that this is not 2016. Trump and Stephen Miller learned a lot from their first administration. “The courts look very different than they did four years ago.”

Trump is expected to continue other far-reaching policies from his first term and set aside Biden’s important moves. These include:

—Trump harshly criticized Biden’s policies to create and expand legal entry routes, including through the online app called CBP One, which has seen nearly 1 million people enter land crossings with Mexico since January 2023. Another policy allowed more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to fly into the country with financial sponsors.

— Trump reduced the number of refugees being tracked abroad by the United Nations and the State Department to resettle in the United States to its lowest level since Congress created the program in 1980. Biden has rebuilt The annual limit was increased from 18,000 under Trump to 125,000.

—Trump tried to end the Obama era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program that protects people who came to the United States as minors from deportation. A lawsuit from Republican governors that looks set to head to the Supreme Court challenges DACA. For now, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients can renew their status, but new applications are not being accepted.

—Trump has significantly scaled back the use of Temporary Protected Status, created under a 1990 law that allows people already in the United States to stay if their home country is deemed unsafe. Biden sharply expands TPS use, including for hundreds of thousands haitians And Venezuelans.

Maribel Hernandez, a Venezuelan with TPS that allows her to stay in the U.S. through April 2025, broke down in tears as her 2-year-old son slept in a stroller outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York as immigrants debated the election results Wednesday.

“Imagine if they would finish it,” he said.

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Salomon reported from Miami. AP reporter Cedar Attanasio contributed from New York.