At a campaign rally in Arizona on Thursday, Donald Trump continued his attacks on illegal immigration and his criticism of the Biden-Harris administration’s handing of the border. He said the US is “like a garbage can for the world.”

With Election Day just over a week away, Trump has been focusing on anti-immigration rhetoric as he tries to win over additional voters in this final stretch of the campaign trail, especially in swing states. Though he continues his anti-immigration rhetoric at his rallies, he has not shared many details on how he plans to accomplish his sweeping immigration proposals.

What would immigration under a second Trump term actually look like? What policies would he realistically be able to implement, and what broader impacts will they have on immigrant communities already in the United States?

At another Arizona rally earlier this month, Trump mentioned his proposal to hire an additional 10,000 agents to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, with no plan for how he will accomplish that or how he will get funding for this proposal. Trump has also proposed mass deportations of millions of people and building new detainment centers.

According to the New York Times, Trump will have a very difficult time getting the resources to implement his proposed policies. Many candidates, especially Donald Trump, rely on hyperbolic rhetoric on the campaign trail to energize their base without any realistic details on how they will put their proposals in action.

Stephen Miller, who oversaw border policy during Trump’s first term and is expected to take on that role again if Trump is re-elected, said at the Conservative Political Action Committee earlier this year that the administration would bring back Safe Third agreements, Remain in Mexico, and Title 42. He also mentioned creating large staging grounds for removal flights.

Safe Third agreements, Remain in Mexico, and Title 42 were all used during the first Trump presidency to curtail immigration. Safe Third agreements with countries in Central America required asylum seekers traveling through those countries to first seek protection there before they get to the U.S.-Mexico border. Remain in Mexico is is a Department of Homeland Security policy which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their U.S. court date. Title 42 is a policy that was revived during the COVID pandemic which allowed for turning away migrants arriving at the southern border on the basis of public health concerns. This policy ended in 2023 by the Biden administration with the end of the pandemic.

According to WBUR, for the first three years of the Biden presidency, there were roughly 2 million illegal border crossings a year, and that number fell drastically with tightened border controls and significantly limited asylum claims. During the Trump presidency, those numbers remained below a million each year.

Daniel Kanstroom, an immigration law expert at the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy and co-director of the Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice, says he thinks it will be very difficult to implement something like Trump’s mass deportation proposal.

“There really is no way to implement this kind of a massive program without creating what amounts to a police state,” he told WBUR. “You’re going to have to be checking everybody’s I.D.’s. How do you tell who is an immigrant and who is a citizen? People don’t come with labels on their foreheads.” Kanstroom added that he does not think it is possible to identify the immigration status of 11 million people.

This does not mean that there will be no changes at all to immigration policy, or that there won’t be other devastating consequences. There could still be an increase in detention, deportation, and family separation, in addition to fear within immigrant communities.

One thing we know based on previous border crackdowns is that stricter immigration enforcement does not necessarily deter  migrants who want to cross the border. Anuj Gupta, CEO of The Welcoming Center (TWC), says the grit and perseverance of migrants who go through difficult journeys to get to the United States shows that they are determined to make it to their final destination. He says the U.S. should welcome people with that level of grit and determination.

“The issue is not that people want to come to this country,” he says. “The problem is that we don’t have a system to accommodate them.”

As a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization, TWC provides community support and a wide range of services for migrants, including language training, entrepreneurship support, and leadership workshops. Elizabeth Jones, Strategy and Impact Director, says preparing for the possibility of a second Trump presidency means responding to changing community needs and emphasizing wellness, while maintaining TWC’s current programming.

“We need to provide a way for people to be able to express their fears,” she says. “Wellness will be threatened.”