It’s been surprising to some that the Donald Trump administration’s great deportation of undocumented immigrants began in earnest so early after his inauguration. In their laments, my leftist friends and some Hispanics who voted for Trump express disbelief. Trump is merely unveiling what he promised. It will continue for the next four years, or as long as he is president.

I had anticipated that the majority of the first wave of deportees would be those who had fallen foul of the law, but from all reports, the majority of the people apprehended by ICE are ordinary immigrants and not necessarily lawbreakers. And contrary to Trump’s quotidian exhortations, most immigrants traveling thousands of miles are not criminals but poor folks seeking a better life.

For years, I’ve wondered what the United States planned to do about the 11 million undocumented persons among us, even as we utilized their services, got to know them and became their friends. The difficulty these people present is nothing new; it riled the George Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

Both administrations deported large numbers of those who had committed crimes. Indeed, so large was Obama’s numbers that he was labeled “Deporter in chief” — he deported criminals and the recently arrived.

What happened in the first Trump administration, including separation of children from their parents, most likely will be repeated at a more energetic and frenetic pace. I expected Trump to embark on a draconian deportation policy, as he promised during the elections.

It was never clear what Joe Biden’s thoughts were regarding the masses of people who trekked northwards: large caravans from Central America, across Mexico to the U.S. border, overwhelming border authorities and border communities. I stopped watching photos of pregnant women, mothers and small children struggling across the Darren Gap — described as one of the world’s most dangerous immigrant routes — where travelers were attacked by snakes, masked robbers, rapists, suffering broken ankles and hunger while many were murdered.

Biden’s immigration policy was never sufficiently comprehensible; it was as if the Latin vote was his only objective. He and his fellow Democrats were wrong.

The crowds amassed on the Mexican side of the border and believed they were guaranteed entry to the U.S. were a flashing sign that Biden likely would lose the election.

Because of complexity, immigration has been difficult for many administrations. But Trump’s genius harnessed it, finding it a readily suitable issue: just promise the tired, fevered, bothered American electorate you’ll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it; also promise them mass deportations.

As an immigrant, there are issues I see more clearly than most Americans. Example is Vice President Kamala Harris’ Central American visit — El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — in 2021. It demonstrated that the administration’s thinking about the root cause of the immigrant crisis in America was based on rational reasoning. The U.S. footprint in Central America is deep, its history long. The U.S. is, by history and geography, married to Central and South America, something more Americans should know about.

Much of the poverty in Central America is a result of America’s war against communism. We did it not with the creation of wealth but with guns and bullets. We supported right-wing corrupt dictators, justifying it by claiming that Central America served as a bulwark against Castro’s and Soviet Union’s communism.

Sadly, the terror the right wing unleashed on their people reigns to this day. The aftermath and debris of our fight against communism is represented by millions of poor, destitute citizens of these places who, as long as they are hungry and impoverished, the U.S. will continue to be a magnet; a place where all wrongs are set right.

But as a country’s economic prospects improve, the numbers of their people escaping poverty declines. To illustrate this, as the Mexican economy has improved, the numbers of Mexican nationals crossing the US border have declined considerably over the past few years. Working with representative Central and South American governments, by assisting them to improve their citizens’ livelihoods, will lead to a lowering of illegal migration.

Additionally, immigrants will be needed to continue filling roles U.S. citizens cannot, as well as maintaining our industries. Like the rest of the Western world that’s getting older, we soon will need these young, vibrant immigrants to take care of our aging, ailing selves.

A wise immigration policy will best serve them and us.

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships; co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students ‘STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, a Huffington Post blogger, a past columnist for Denver dailies and is featured on the podcast, “Never Again.”