Rep. Tony Gonzales emphasizes the need to focus on criminals for deportations

With President-elect Donald Trump's vows to radically revise the United States' immigration system during his second term, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said deportations should narrowly focus on convicted criminals.

"You know, if we're going after the guy that's picking tomatoes or the nurse at the local hospital and we're not going after the convicted criminal, then our government has failed us," Gonzales told ABC News' Martha Raddatz in an interview on "This Week."

Trump has promised a mass deportation operation beginning on "day one" of his second term, saying he would carry out these plans with the help of local law enforcement and the national guard. There are nearly 11 million people in the United States without permanent legal status, according to the Pew Research Institute and the American Immigration Center.

Amidst these threats, Gonzales said "legal immigration should never be mixed with these hardened criminals."

"Our country was built on those fleeing persecution," he said. "And it would be just absolutely terrible if we don't protect those that are doing it the right way."

Gonzales, a Navy veteran, was elected to Congress in 2020. He represents Texas' 23rd Congressional District, which includes the largest swath of border territory of any House district, running 800 miles along Texas' southwestern border with Mexico.

After narrowly surviving a primary challenge from the right this year, Gonzales won re-election earlier this month with around 60% of the vote.

Trump announced his selection of Tom Homan for "border czar" in his second term. Homan served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first term and has pledged to carry out mass deportations. Last year at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Homan told the crowd he is "sick and tired of hearing about the family separation," which Homan was involved in carrying out.

Asked to respond to Homan's rhetoric, Gonzales said, "He doesn't need me defending him" and reiterated that "We have to end the lawlessness."

The estimated cost to deport 1 million undocumented immigrants a year is more than $88 billion, according to a report from the American Immigration Council. Gonzales has previously said that the U.S. "does not have the infrastructure" to carry out mass deportations.

Pressed on the feasibility of Trump's plans, Gonzales responded, "We need to focus on talking about the convicted criminal aliens," and to provide resources for finding them and deporting them.

“And you do that by making sure that these task forces have the resources they need. You pull local, state and federal resources to go after these criminals, you find them, you deport them.”

Many of Trump's selections for his second term team have made clear their hardline views on immigration, including his pick for deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, who said that "America is for Americans and Americans only" at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally in October.

Pressed on Miller's statement, Gonzales responded that "This American first movement is very real, because they feel as if lots of Americans are doing all the things they're supposed to do, and somehow they're in the back of the line."

He called for an end to division and said, "We got to get back to everybody rowing in the same direction."

Asked about Trump's appointment of former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, someone Gonzales once called a "scumbag," the congressman replied that "I want him to do good things for our country" and emphasized the need for unity.

Trump's appointment for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth has stirred up controversy with past comments that women should not serve in the military.

In response, Gonzales told Raddatz, "I've served with women in combat, they're some of the toughest warriors around."