Two weeks before shots rang out in Butler, Pennsylvania, I received a solicitation from the Trump campaign headlined “I NEED YOU ON MY WAR COUNCIL!” If you are wondering why the campaign would waste time and money soliciting a Democrat, I should confess I subscribe to several conservative publications in the interest of remaining current with right-wing perspectives. These subscriptions hint I might be a Republican fundraising prospect. All sorts of appeals for campaign donations tumble into both my snail mailbox and my email — usually from Democrats. You learn a lot about the temperature of American politics from receiving the messages partisan direct-mail mavens believe might hook you.

Former President Donald Trump’s text reads, “Biden and the DEEP STATE have declared ALL-OUT WAR against me. THEY MADE ME A POLITICAL PRISONER. A CONVICTED FELON! But with your help I will soon be free when we peacefully TAKE BACK THE WHITE HOUSE.” The generous capitalization conforms with the former president’s penchant for digital bellowing on his Truth Social account. He goes on to yell, “We’re up against some of the most EVIL people imaginable – the lying FAKE NEWS media and the corrupt DEEP STATE! PLEASE, I couldn’t imagine winning this final battle without you at my side.” I declined the opportunity to join Trump’s War Council, but any observer would acknowledge his request is framed by martial and inflammatory oratory.

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In this week’s Time magazine feed, Dr. Jennifer Mercieca, author of “Demagogue for President: The rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump” submitted an essay on political violence writing, “To call politics war cheapens the sacrifices made by actual soldiers and turns our political opponents from good people (who have good reasons for wanting different policies) to enemies (who have no redeeming qualities and must be destroyed),” she concludes. Hyperbolic language is not the exclusive domain of Republicans in 2024, although the Republicans seem better at it. I don’t know a single Democrat, center left or far left, intent on “destroying America.” Surely there are zealots residing on the fringes of both camps who share a longing for anarchy, however.

Both presidential candidates were quick to issue statements condemning political violence and espousing national unity across the partisan divide. Trump’s vision of unity appears to be a coalescing of public opinion behind his candidacy, as his first message transmitted on Truth Social after his wounding was to laud Judge Aileen Cannon for taking the first step in this direction by dismissing the classified documents case against him. The next steps he asked for were the dismissal of all the remaining legal jeopardy he faces. This seems a profoundly constrained and narcissistic definition of how to “bring us together.”

It’s worthwhile to consider a major political plank and promise from his candidacy and its probable consequences. Whether you believe the generally accepted number of undocumented aliens currently residing in the United States as 11 million to be accurate, or the 18 million to 20 million the former president claimed during the CNN debate, what would their mass deportation require logistically? A second term Trump presidency would consist of 1,460 days. If we deduct 150 days to hire U.S. Marshals, additional border personnel, open internment camps, purchase the necessary planes and buses, contract with firms to feed and house detainees and eliminate another 210 days lost to Sundays and holidays, we are left with perhaps 1,100 available transport days. Simple math tells us we would have to arrest and simultaneously deport between 10,000 to 18,000 humans daily. On the enforcement side, armed teams of Marshals would be raiding entire neighborhoods around the clock, shutting down streets, demanding identity documents, emptying homes of their contents and generally terrorizing residents.

How popular will that be? You can assume 2% to 3% of those arrested will prove to be U.S. citizens who were overheard speaking Spanish at the Walmart. Several million will also be DACA kids, now adults, who have no memory of the country their parents departed and who no longer speak the language spoken there, having been educated and graduated from American schools and colleges. In order to accommodate the daily deportations, a hundred planeloads will have to depart and return. Optimistically, this might be managed at a cost of $2,000 per deportee — not counting the personnel expenses for federal employees and contractors, totaling at least $10 billion to $20 billion annually. Doable, I suppose, but most of those rounded up currently hold jobs here, pay taxes, including social security they will never collect, and thus will punch a hole in the bottom of the American economy and the federal budget.

If you think restaurant meals are expensive post-COVID, just wait until we dump all the kitchen help into deportation camps. The former president appears to think immigrants have stolen “black and brown” jobs. Think again. Here, in Colorado, glance carefully at construction crews, road-surfacing teams, ditch-digging operations and gardening workers. Ask yourself who seems to be performing this work? Who are those young men playing soccer evenings and weekends in our city parks? “Deport them now” enthusiasts suggest a mass expulsion will relieve pressure on housing costs. Really? Think again. What is the market demand for four families sharing a house trailer? And, of course, do we think these refugees will line up quietly to climb aboard buses, or will they run and hide?

This project won’t be easy to implement or invisible to American citizens. How will we handle those who accept refuge in churches, or are hidden by their neighbors? Some percentage, likely small yet certain, will be deported to their deaths. Are we comfortable with that? I’m also reminded of a young east African immigrant who attended the Spanish language debate several years ago between Andrew Romanoff and Mike Coffman. He observed, “Real discrimination is when someone is trying to kill you.” Policy violence is the cousin of political violence. Is it practical or even reasonable to abandon our heritage as a nation of immigrants? We may as well crate up the Statue of Liberty and return it to France. At the very least, we should remove the bleeding-heart promise, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.