WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump is starting to sound like President Obama on immigration.

In his first post-election interview, Trump said he will focus on deporting criminal immigrants and not everyone living in the United States illegally. Two million or 3 million people could be immediate targets for deportation under this approach, Trump said, providing a likely inflated figure.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Immigrants in the country illegally: about 11 million.
• Criminal immigrants: As of 2012, the government estimated that 1.9 immigrants were criminals and could face deportation.
• Criminal immigrants in the country illegally: The Migration Policy Institute in Washington estimates that about 820,000 of the criminal immigrants are here illegally.
• Deportations under President Barack Obama: More than 2.5 million.
• Deportation costs: Each deportation costs an average of about $12,500, according to a 2011 government estimate.
• Immigration court backlog: More than 521,000 cases are pending in federal immigration court, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
• Immigrants with pending deportation orders: 88,128 as of 2015, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Justice Department.
• Border fence: About 650 miles of fencing is already in place along the Mexican border in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
• Length of Mexican border: Roughly 2,000 miles.
• Border Patrol agents: 18,321 agents patrol the U.S. border with Mexico.
• Arrests at the border: 408,870 people were arrested trying to cross the border illegally during the 2016 budget year that ended in September.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Sector Chief Manuel Padilla Jr. talks to the media during a news conference, Monday in Edinburg, Texas. In response to a surge in asylum-seekers from violence-wracked Central America, the Border Patrol has sent 150 reinforcements from neighboring states to the Rio Grande Valley. Associated Press/Eric Gay

And that “big, beautiful wall” at the Mexican border? Trump said he may be amenable to a fence along some parts of the roughly 2,000-mile border.

The softened stance contrasts sharply with Trump’s campaign rhetoric. As a candidate, he called for everyone living in the country illegally to return to their home countries and for Mexico to pay for the wall.

Trump said in an interview with “60 Minutes” broadcast Sunday that immigration enforcement will concentrate on criminals.

Obama’s Homeland Security Department has operated similarly. Since 2010, criminals comprised more than half of those deported from the U.S. Over his presidency, Obama has overseen the deportation of more than 2.5 million people.

Trump didn’t say Sunday how he will target criminals. He previously has spoken about reviving programs that gave immigration agents access to jails so they could identify people living in the country illegally.

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