Donald Trump 'to start largest ever deportation of illegal immigrants' on his first day

A spokeswoman for Donald Trump’s transition team has said his advisors are busy drafting dozens of executive orders that he will sign after his inauguration ceremony on January 20

Donald Trump is set to order the mass deportation of millions of people on the day he takes office.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team, said the president-elect's advisors are busy drafting dozens of executive orders that he will sign shortly after his inauguration ceremony on January 20.

On the campaign trail Trump spoke of deporting up to 20 million undocumented people who are currently in the US, plans which members of his team say he intends to start putting into action the day he becomes president.

"On day one he's going to open the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in American history," Leavitt told Fox News.

Trump has previously spoken about the 1954 Eisenhower-era mass deportation of Mexican nationals which saw 1 million people rounded up by border officials and local law enforcement and forcibly taken back to Mexico.

The president elect has said he would have “no problem” using the military to round up undocumented migrants, but he said it would start with the national guard, CNN reported. He said: “when we talk military, generally speaking, I talk National Guard.”

He has previously said he does not think laws to stop the use of the Army on US civilians would get in the way of these round-ups. “These aren’t civilians,” Trump said of migrants. “These are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country.”

He also plans to bring back the Remain in Mexico policy, that would see migrants remain on the Mexican side of the border while their asylum claims are processed, until attending their court date in the US to hear the outcome.

Other measures set to be signed off by Trump on his first day include executive orders relating "to expedite fracking and drilling" and to reverse orders signed by President Biden, Leavitt said.

"This man is already working around the clock," she said of Trump. Meanwhile the future of America's support for Ukraine remains in question as whitehall officials have said they are "considering and planning lots of different scenarios" for Ukraine Trump's US election win, a Cabinet minister has confirmed.

Pressed on what the UK might do if the US retreats under Mr Trump, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told Sky News: "Officials will be considering and planning lots of different scenarios - as they would do under any administration - to make sure that the UK is in the strongest possible position."