Trump’s Immigration Plan Just Went to a Terrifying New Extreme

Donald Trump took his promise of the largest mass deportations in U.S. history to horrific new heights over the weekend, when he promised to begin a policy called “remigration.”

In one of the former president’s several outlandish missives, Trump ranted about his anti-immigrant immigration policy. Among promises to “stop all migrant flights” and “suspend refugee resettlement,” he vowed Saturday to “return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration).”

Stephen Miller, the ghoul behind some of Trump’s harshest immigration policies, reshared the post. “THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION!”

Whenever Miller, with his affinity for white nationalism, backs up an immigration policy, one can usually assume it’s for the purpose of making America a white nation—and lo and behold, that’s exactly what “remigration” means.

The Associated Press described “remigration” in 2019 as “the chilling notion of returning immigrants to their native lands in what amounts to a soft-style ethnic cleansing.” Remigration means not just deportation but the forcible return of non–ethnically European immigrants and their families, regardless of their actual citizenship. The horrific policy proposal is a direct response to the racist “great replacement” theory, which has been pushed by many right-wing U.S. politicians, including J.D. Vance .

While “remigration” is not a commonly used word in U.S. politics, it is slightly more in evidence in European politics, where far-right politicians have pushed to maintain a homogeneous cultural and ethnic society.

For example, Herbert Kickl, the leader of the Austrian far-right party, advocated in June for a “remigration commissioner.” In August, Kickl urged “remigration” while introducing the party’s manifesto advocating for “homogeneity” in Austria, rather than diversity. He also has previously said that remigration could be used to revoke the citizenship of non-whites who “refuse to integrate.”

Martin Sellner, the activist head of the so-called Identitarian Movement, which extols the superiority of European ethnic groups, posted about Trump’s use of the word on X. “#Remigration has had a massive conceptual career,” Sellner wrote in German. “Born in France, popularized in German-speaking countries and now the term of the hour from Sweden to the USA!”

So did Trump know he was using the obscure language of the far right? It seems likely.

“He knows what he is doing,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor who studies fascism and authoritarianism, told Mother Jones . “He chooses his words carefully.”