Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime

February 12, 2026 · 1h 20m

About this episode

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick discusses the implications of the Trump administration's mass deportation policies.

“The US government wants to arrest, detain, and deport one in every 24 people in the country—4% of the US population. That cannot be done without fundamentally transforming who we are as a people and our relationship to law enforcement.” So argues Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a leading expert on immigration and Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council, in a bracing Conversation on the scale and scope of the Trump administration's mass deportation mission. Reichlin-Melnick shares his perspective on the administration’s massive political and financial investment in deportation and detentions, which already have reached record levels. Kristol and Reichlin-Melnick also consider the implications of these policies for legal immigration, civil liberties, the nature of American law enforcement, and the character of American society.

People in this episode

Host: Bill Kristol

Guest: Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

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Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American Immigration Council

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