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Donald Trump will keep his vow to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the US, the president-elect said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, adding that as many as three million could be removed after he assumes office.

"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where 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," Trump said in an excerpt released ahead of broadcast by CBS's 60 Minutes program.

The billionaire real estate baron made security at the US-Mexico border a central plank of his insurgent presidential campaign, which resulted in last Tuesday's shock election victory against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump added that the barrier to be erected on the US border with Mexico may not consist entirely of brick and mortar, but that fencing could be used in some areas.

"There could be some fencing," he said in his first primetime interview since being elected president last week.

"But [for] certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I'm very good at this, it's called construction," he told CBS.

Trump’s comments were directly at odds with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that mass deportation is not a focus of Republicans right now.

Ryan said "I think we should put people's minds at ease" on mass deportation because the top priority is really border security.

Trump campaigned on a vow to stop Mexicans entering the US as well as deport all 11 million in the country illegally, with exceptions.

Following his election on Tuesday, thousands of Americans took to the streets in protest against the president-elect who ran a controversial campaign marked by racist, sexist, xenophobic and divisive comments.

Trump said he would bar Muslims from entering the country, build a wall across the Mexican border to stop immigrants from entering the US, and ramp up the war against the Islamic State group.

Agencies contributed to this report