Some Republicans try to tone down Trump's mass deportation threats

As President-elect Donald Trump doubles down on his mass deportation plan, some Republicans are trying to assuage fears amid growing questions of who will be forced out of the country.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News on Wednesday, Trump said, “It’s not a question of a price tag, we have no choice ... When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here.”

But in prior interviews and on the campaign trail, Trump and others have not targeted the deportations to just those who have committed violent crimes.

In an April interview with Time magazine, he said his mass deportations would "start with the criminals that are coming in" and added he may deploy the military for an "invasion" of what he said was already 15 million immigrants — and could be 20 million — by the end of President Joe Biden's term.

The prospect of mass deportations is generating fear and apprehension among families with noncitizen members and businesses that employ undocumented workers.

But some Republicans' readings of Trump's policy — which he has promised would bring about deportations at a scale never before seen in the U.S. — are more limited in scope.

Republicans in immigrant-heavy states have been suggesting he’ll prioritize or only focus on the worst criminals.

“I am sure that the Trump administration is not going to be targeting those people who have been here for more than five years that have American kids, that don’t have criminal records, that have been working in the economy and paying taxes,” Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said in a PBS interview. Her Miami-Dade district is home to about 200,000 undocumented people.

“I am sure that they’re going to hone in on the criminals who arrived less than four years ago,” she added.

Asked in the interview whether she got those assurances from Trump or someone in his potential administration, Salazar didn't directly answer, but said she is "going to be one of those voices making sure within the GOP to make that distinction."

And Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in an NBC News interview Wednesday that Trump has “made clear that his priority is to deport dangerous criminals. People that are in this country and are criminals in their home country, or are committing crimes here, they will be the priority for removal from this country."

NBC News reached out to the Trump campaign and to Salazar's and Rubio's offices to request more details and clarify the scope of the deportation plan.

Focusing on deporting immigrants convicted and charged with crimes, or considered a danger to the U.S., was already done in the Obama and Biden administrations. Trump undid Obama’s deportation priorities, broadening the pool of immigrants who could be targeted for removal and giving  more power to immigration enforcement officers to make those judgments, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Administrations have used different mechanisms for deportations, such as making agreements with local police to enforce federal immigration laws through the so-called 287(g) program, allowing them to help stage workplace raids or conduct other arrests.

Some states have shared names of people they stop for certain traffic violations with the Department of Homeland Security to check immigration or citizenship status. Others have checked every person booked into jail against DHS databases.

But Trump has said repeatedly that he would conduct the largest deportation operation in U.S. history on the first day of his administration.

Without naming it, Trump has invoked the 1950s deportations conducted by the Eisenhower’s administration, dubbed with the racist label “Operation Wetback.” Trump has also previously pledged to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1789. That would authorize him to detain and deport noncitizens in the United States older than 14.

The president-elect has also said he would withhold federal grants to police that don’t cooperate in his mass deportation plan as well as use the National Guard to carry it out.

In a news conference, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Trump "has made it perfectly clear that this is a process and you have to have a priority list." He said Trump would first pursue “all the criminals who are here who crossed the border illegally and committed a crime in the United States or had a criminal background before they entered the United States.”

But unlike Salazar and Rubio, Abbott said Trump would go further: "You begin with are the criminals and after you get done with that, he’ll look elsewhere."

The Texas governor also said that it would take time for Trump to undertake the deportations, because he’ll need to rebuild Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But not long ago, some Republicans have resisted Democratic administrations' attempts to prioritize certain immigrants over others for deportation.

Texas and Louisiana sued the Biden administration when DHS announced it would focus on noncitizens who are a threat to national security, followed by those who are a threat to public safety, then those who are a threat to border security. The attempt was stopped by the Supreme Court.

Artemio Muniz, chairman of the Federation of Hispanic Republicans, an arm of the Texas GOP, told NBC News on Wednesday that the “discussion” ahead on mass deportations is going to be hard.

With Trump’s victory sealed, Muniz said he would begin work making sure “hard-working Mexican immigrants” are not deported.

“This is going to be a situation where you are going to have some Republicans push for mass deportations of everybody, but I believe President Trump, I believe Republican Congress, senators and even the grassroots to a degree … are going to say, ‘OK, let’s make sure those who are deported are those who have committed violent crimes, transnational gangs and so forth,'” he said.

He said Trump would not be falling short of his campaign pledge if the hardworking immigrants he seeks to protect are not included in the deportations.

“If he deports violent criminals, gang leaders and drug leaders, people who committed violent crimes like rape or murder, isn’t that mass deportation?” Muniz asked.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com