What Trump's time as president tells us about his promise of mass deportations

Donald Trump won the White House the first time in part by promising an aggressive crackdown on immigration.

"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on," he said at the time.

A controversial Muslim travel ban did later go into effect, and by the second year of his term the Trump administration was separating kids from parents at the border as part of the administration's "zero tolerance policy."

"Don't break the law. I mean, that's why they're separated — 'cause they're breaking the law," then Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in May 2018.

If Trump gets back in the White House, he's promising to go even further on immigration.

"As soon as I take the oath of office, we will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country," he told a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan last month, repeating a promise that has become a familiar part of his rallies.

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Trump is taking the pledge on the road

At the Republican National Convention this summer, hundreds of attendees waved signs demanding "Mass Deportation Now!"

And all over the country, Trump's supporters applaud when he repeats this promise.

He was greeted with cheers at a rally in Nevada when he said this: "When I'm re-elected, we will begin — and we have no choice — the largest deportation operation in American history."

And he got more cheers at a rally in Montana last week when he said: "We will seal the border, stop the