Hope Border Institute speak on Trump’s proposed deportation plans

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- President-elect Donald Trump recently spoke about some of his plans to start with mass deportations once he starts his new administration.

Starting with undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes and then with "people outside of criminals." Trump did not detail which crimes would be considered for these first deportations.

ABC-7 spoke with the Hope Border Institute to learn their thoughts on these proposed plans.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about what President Trump is committing or trying to say he's going to implement when he takes office. He tried to give some clarity to that question over the weekend, but there are still a lot of questions because one of the things that he said was, talking about, deporting entire families, even if they're mixed status," said Aimée Santillán with HOPE.

President-elect Trump has previously clarified he plans to not break up families but to give people with legal status to stay in the U.S. or keep them together and send them all back to their countries of origin.

"The Trump administration during the first term deported people and separated families. And that was definitely a big issue especially in the interior, as you saw a lot of parents getting deported through work rates and children being left in the country with nobody else to take care of them," Santillán added.

Trump has also mentioned his plans to end birthright citizenship, which is stated in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution that would strip rights from those born in the country to undocumented parents.

ABC-7 asked HOPE if they had seen something like this before or a U.S. citizen being stripped of their citizenship in any studies before.

"No, it's something that we really haven't seen or really know how it is that they are even thinking a policy like that would work and, and how it would be even legal. No, it's not something that we have seen before," Santillán added.