Long Story Short

Migration is surging worldwide — as is the backlash to it. Perhaps nowhere is this backlash more evident at the moment than in the United States, where newly minted President Donald Trump has said he will deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country. Amy Pope doesn’t think that is practical, or productive. Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration, which falls under the United Nations, told Devex that such a mass deportation would have a range of repercussions, assuming it’s even feasible. “In the United States where you’re talking over 11 million people who’ve been living and working there, frankly — and I know this because I worked at a time when more than 400,000 people were removed in a year under President Obama — the system cannot bear removing 11 million people. The logistical capacity does not exist,” she told Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar during a special episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast from the World Eco