160,000 South Koreans Could Be Deported from the U.S. Under Trump Presidency

Since President-Elect Donald Trump vowed to implement his campaign pledge to crack down on illegal immigrants, an estimated number of 160,000 South Koreans could be deported from the US.

Although the crackdown is meant for illegal immigrants from Mexico who have criminal records, there's a huge possibility that the scope may widen. And the fact that Trump constantly blames illegal immigrants for lesser job opportunities for US citizens is making these 160,000 South Koreans worry that they may be deported from the US.

President-Elect Donald Trump vowed to have 2 to 3 million illegal immigrants deported in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes on November 15.

"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers. We have a lot of these people -- probably two million, it could be even three million -- we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate them. They are here illegally," he said.

"After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we're going to make a determination on the people that you're talking about who are terrific people, they're terrific people, but we are going to make a determination on that," Trump even added, reaffirming his plan on building a wall along the Mexican border.

As announced by the Pew Research Center early this month, there's an estimated number of 160,000 South Koreans who are in the US illegally. The center said that the number of illegal Korean immigrants in the US has been growing steadily since 1990. It has recorded the highest number on 2010 where it reached 200,000. It had gradually declined to 190,000 in 2011 and then 180,000 in 2012. Now the remaining 160,000 South Koreans may be deported from the US under the new presidency.