Elias Benjelloun’s parents were issued their deportation orders quickly after President-elect Donald Trump first stepped into office in 2016.

For the family, Benjelloun said, the deportation order felt somewhat like a betrayal. Originally from the Netherlands, the family’s asylum case had been pending for decades before the FBI had granted them assistance after Benjelloun’s father — owner of a popular Las Vegas hookah lounge — reported information. 

But when Trump stepped into office, the FBI suddenly dropped the case.

“They essentially kicked us to the curb,” 29-year-old Benjelloun, who remains undocumented, said. “It led to their deportation eventually.”

Now for Benjelloun, as well as other undocumented Nevadans, the threat of deportation looms large again with Trump’s oft-repeated promise to conduct a mass deportation campaign. In Nevada, which has the largest per capita undocumented population of any state and the largest share of mixed-status families in the nation, the effects of such a campaign could be especially pronounced. On top of separating loved ones, immigration advocates say that a mass deportation campaign could be widely disruptive to Nevada’s economy and cultural fabric. 

Michael Kagan, a law professor at UNLV and director of the UNLV Immigration Clinic, said despite the logistical hurdles of such a large and costly operation, the threat of mass deportations remains a “very real possibility.” 

During his first term, Trump put into place highly restrictive immigration policies that he could reinstate, such as expedited removal along the Southern border — which allows immigration officers to remove noncitizens without a hearing  — and the 2017 “Muslim Ban,” which temporarily banned travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. 

If a policy such as expedited removal is expanded beyond the border, Kagan said it could speed up deportations and increase the number of people deported. 

“If an ICE officer thinks this person could be deported, and if they're not satisfied that this person has been here for two years, they could take them to deportation without going to a judge first,” Kagan said.

The cost of a mass deportation campaign, however, could be extraordinary, with one report from the left-leaning nonprofit American Immigration Council pegging the cost at $88 billion per year, totaling out to about $968 billion during the course of a decade. In addition to the operating costs of arresting, detaining and processing people, the U.S would need to build 24 times more  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers than currently exist, and more than 1,000 new immigration courtrooms to sustain the operation, according to the report.

To supplement ICE, Trump said that he plans to use wartime powers and use the U.S. military to conduct deportations, including sending the National Guard from cooperating Republican-governed states into states that refuse to cooperate. 

Private prison companies have also already begun to work with Trump associates on coordinating mass deportations, and just this Wednesday, Texas offered Trump more than a thousand acres for detention facilities. 

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether he would be open to deploying Nevada’s National Guard. If Lombardo resisted such a bid, however, Trump could bypass him through the Insurrection Act of 1807, which he has previously threatened to use. 

Lombardo, who endorsed Trump during the 2024 presidential race, previously touted his role in deporting 10,000 people when he served as Clark County sheriff. 

“There's a range of outcomes, but mass deportation of a kind that almost no one alive has ever experienced is a very real possibility,” Kagan said.

Jiromi Peña, a 19-year-old student at UNLV, has been worrying about many of her undocumented loved ones since Trump’s re-election. 

She said many of her close friends, who are recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or other temporary protection programs, are worried that their legal status could be challenged. Meanwhile, her father, who has lived in the U.S. for decades, already has a backup plan to move back with family in Mexico, if deported. 

“I’m definitely scared,” Peña said. 

Still, Peña, who is a justice fellow with Make the Road Nevada, a progressive nonprofit immigrant advocacy group, said that she feels “ready for what his presidency has to bring.” Make the Road is already brainstorming plans to help undocumented people once Trump steps into office. This includes connecting them to legal services and expanding food pantries for those scared to get their own groceries, Peña said. 

Like Peña’s father, Benjelloun also has a backup plan. Since early November, Benjelloun has gone back and forth on whether to move back to the Netherlands to be with his parents and his sister, who was also deported.

Benjelloun remains conflicted because he was raised in the U.S. and wants to continue his entrepreneurial career and his work on immigration reform. In his nearly three decades here, Benjelloun has distinguished himself, being the youngest elected student body president at UNLV and entering college at age 14. 

“I haven't seen my own parents in five years, and you know, I'm going to continue to be in limbo, and I'm not sure you know what is supposed to come next,” Benjelloun said.