Getty Obama ridicules Trump's plan for a 'deportation force'

President Barack Obama ridiculed Donald Trump's proposal to use a "deportation force" to expel millions of undocumented immigrants from the United States, calling the proposal unrealistic as well as costly.

“The notion that we’re gonna deport 11, 12 million people from this country — first of all, I have no idea where Mr. Trump thinks the money’s gonna come from,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos at the White House. “It would cost us hundreds of billions of dollars to execute that.”


Trump, appearing on “Morning Joe” this week, told co-host Mika Brzezinski he would have a deportation force to carry out his controversial immigration proposal. "You're going to have a deportation force, and you're going to do it humanely and you’re going to bring the country — and, frankly, the people, because you have some excellent, wonderful people, some fantastic people that have been here for a long period of time," Trump said. "Don't forget, Mika, that you have millions of people that are waiting in line to come into this country and they’re waiting to come in legally."

Obama challenged the humanity of Trump’s plan. “Imagine the images on the screen flashed around the world as we were dragging parents away from their children, and putting them in what, detention centers, and then systematically sending them out,” Obama said. “Nobody thinks that that is realistic. But more importantly, that’s not who we are as Americans.”

The president said some Americans back the billionaire real estate mogul's proposal because there has always been some anti-immigrant sentiment in this country — ironically, he said, from people who have immigrant roots.

“It’s the job of leaders not to play into that sentiment,” he said. “We don’t want, I think, a president or any person in a position of leadership to play on those kinds of fears.”

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton attacked Trump on his deportation plan Wednesday, calling it “absurd, inhumane, and un-American.”

Trump continued to defend his immigration proposal Thursday night on Fox News’ “Special Report.”

“It’s not only deportation, it’s building a wall…it’s basically quite simple. It’s going to be done in a very humane fashion,” Trump said. “There will be deportation and hopefully they’ll be able to come back into the country.”

Trump said his proposals will not be expensive or difficult if they’re “managed properly.”

“Mine is not mean-spirited, it’s business,” Trump said. “It will be done in a humane way, it’ll be done professionally.”

Immigration has been an especially hot topic on the campaign trail this week, with Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio on Thursday getting in a nasty back-and-forth about their records on the issue.

Eliza Collins contributed.