Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history,” deploying federal, state and local law enforcement to arrest, jail and deport potentially millions of people living in the country without legal permission.

A militarized operation would depend on detention camps to hold people marked for removal, and would invoke a centuries-old law previously used to detain Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

President-elect Trump told NBC News on Thursday, two days after defeating his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, that he has “no choice” but to implement large-scale deportations when he takes office in January.