Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy supports Trump's mass deportation plan, says immigration system 'broken'

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential contender turned aide to President-elect Donald Trump has voiced strong support for Trump's proposed mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

The Indian-American entrepreneur emphasising the need to enforce immigration laws to restore order said that the United States' legal immigration system was “broken”.

A 'broken' system

In an interview with ABC News, Ramaswamy argued that those who entered the US illegally, particularly in recent years, do not have the right to remain.

“Do we have a broken legal immigration system? Yes, we do. But I think the first step is going to be to restore the rule of law, to do it in a very pragmatic way,” said Ramaswamy.

“Those who have committed a crime should be out of this country. That is by the millions. That alone would be the largest mass deportation. Combine that with ending government aid for all illegals. You see self-deportations,” he added.

Trump and Ramaswamy

Once a rival in the Republican primaries, Ramaswamy has emerged as a close ally to Trump. He told ABC News that he was having “high impact” discussions about his future role within the Trump administration.

"There's a couple great options on the table. I want to have the biggest possible impact on this country. We're not going to sort that out in the press… we're having some high-impact discussions."

Speaking of Trump’s victory, Ramaswamy said, “I think he cares about uniting the country. I think that is Donald Trump's number one focus,” he said.

“He's also learned a lot from that first term, and I think he's going into this second term even to take to new heights some of the things he wasn't able to accomplish in the first term, which I think is going to be a good thing,”

He said that Trump’s focus on challenging the “deep state” has struck a chord across a broad base.

“Here's a big one. And Donald Trump talked for a long time about the deep state. But this idea of restoring self-governance is big in this new coalition. The idea that the people we elect to run the government, they haven't been the ones actually running the government for a very long time.”

“Donald Trump is going to be the president of the United States in the real sense of that word. Capital P president where he is actually making the decisions with the democratic will of the people behind him, not the unelected bureaucratic class underneath him,” he added.

He urged even Trump’s critics to give him a chance, asserting that many would be “pleasantly surprised” by positive changes under the administration.

“A lot of people across the country, even those who have bought into some false narratives about Donald Trump, are going to be pleasantly surprised to find more money in their paychecks, prices coming down in the country, and a secure border. Those are things most Americans actually care about.”

(With inputs from agencies)