‘You’d better start packing now’: GOP convention vows deportations

The man who ran the government’s deportation force under President Trump vowed Wednesday to restore order to the border and to begin ousting some of the millions of illegal immigrants who have arrived under President Biden.

“You’d better start packing now because you’re going home,” Tom Homan, who was acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said on the third night of the Republican National Convention.

Immigration has been a dominant theme at the convention, and no other issue has marked such a sharp contrast between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.

As delegates waved “Mass deportations now” signs, Mr. Homan told them they would get their wish if they sent Mr. Trump back into the White House.

Three Arizona residents spoke about their experiences living on the border.

Jim and Sue Chilton, whose property includes 5 miles of the border, described break-ins of their home, a Border Patrol agent being shot, and the deaths of three migrants from heat exposure on their ranch this year.

“It looks like and feels like an invasion because it is,” Mr. Chilton said.

He said Mr. Biden’s order to halt construction of the border wall left a gap at their ranch, and illegal crossers have poured through the opening at five times the rate as under Mr. Trump.

“It’s like Biden and Harris want the lawlessness,” Mr. Chilton said. “The fact is that walls work. We must elect Donald Trump to finish the wall.”

David Lara, who lives in San Luis, said migrants have overwhelmed his community’s services. He said the fire department has resorted to off-road vehicles to transport residents to the hospital because the ambulances are used for illegal immigrants.

Mr. Lara said the Mexican drug cartels are known to use children as “mules” to carry drugs into the U.S.

Mr. Homan said the cartels will be destroyed if Mr. Trump returns to the White House.

“He’s going to designate you a terorist organization. He’s going to wipe you off the face of the earth. You’re done. You’re done,” Mr. Homan said.

He ticked off the grim statistics of total illegal immigrant crossings, terrorism suspects and drugs that have surged at the border under Mr. Biden.

“Biden is the first president in American history to come into office and unsecure our border. Who the hell does that?” he said. “This isn’t mismanagement. This isn’t incompetence. This is by design, and it’s a choice. It’s national suicide.”

On Tuesday, a woman whose son was killed by a fentanyl overdose and the family of a Maryland mother who was slain on a jogging trail addressed the convention. Authorities have blamed her death on an illegal immigrant who had killed someone in El Salvador before fleeing to the U.S.

Immigrant rights groups have complained about the tenor of the convention and its focus on immigration. They said Republicans’ claims have been misleading.

“Let’s have a serious conversation about our challenges and the ways we can come together to address them instead of inciting fear toward immigrants,” said Jennie Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum Action Fund.