In a 60 Minutes interview broadcast on Sunday night, president-elect Donald Trump said his administration would immediately deport 2-3 million illegal aliens with criminal records.  As for the remaining illegals, Trump said once the border is secure, a determination will be made about their status.

CBS News:

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.” “But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally.”

He continued by saying that after the border is “secure,” immigration officials will begin to make a “determination” about the remaining undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

“After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that they’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people but we are gonna make a determination at that,” he said. “But before we make that determination...it’s very important, we are going to secure our border.”

Asked whether he really plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border -- a proposal that served as a centerpiece of his campaign message -- Trump replied, “Yes.”

Since Trump’s election on Tuesday night, the realities of actually building that wall have begun to set in. The Mexican government has publicly reminded him that Mexico will not pay for the wall. And asked about the wall, Trump transition co-chair Newt Gingrich said the wall was “a great campaign device.”

Trump also told “60 Minutes” that the border wall, which was one of the centerpieces of his campaign platform, could be part wall and “some fencing,” in accordance with what congressional Republicans have proposed.

“For certain areas I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate,” he said. “I’m very good at this, it’s called construction.”

Deporting criminal illegals is a no-brainer.  By law, they should already have been deported.  It's only the defiance of sanctuary cities and a lack of will to enforce the law by the federal government that has led to a situation where criminal illegals can prey on law-abiding citizens.

Trump's estimate of the number of criminal illegals may be wrong, but what's important is that he wants to make an affirmative statement about American sovereignty.  We get to decide who stays and who goes.  And removing those illegal aliens convicted of felonies is the first step in returning our immigration policies to some level of sanity.

A 3,000-mile wall is not going to stop the flow of illegals, but it should slow it down.  How much depends on Trump and the Congress working together to dramatically increase enforcement.  Give ICE and our border control agents the resources and the freedom of action they want, and the flood of illegal aliens entering the U.S. could be drastically reduced.