By Felicia J. Persaud
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Friday. October 18, 2024: With days left until the November 5th election and Donald Trump’s primary solution to America’s challenges being the mass deportation of immigrants, I made the tough decision to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. It’s not because I’m a devoted supporter of either. Harris’ near invisibility over the past three years and her current stance on the war in Palestine has left much to be desired, but as an immigrant, the thought of another Trump presidency is simply unbearable.
Trump, like Adolph Hitler before him, has once again turned to xenophobia as a central campaign tactic, promoting mass deportation as a complete solution to the country’s problems. However, the reality is that deporting millions of people would severely damage the American economy, costing taxpayers billions, while destroying families and fundamentally changing the nation’s identity.
The American Immigration Council recently released a report that sheds light on the enormous fiscal and logistical burden of mass deportations. Deporting the 11 million undocumented immigrants, plus the 2.3 million immigrants who crossed the US southern border between January 2023 and April 2024, would cost about $315 billion. This award is not just a one-time expense; a prolonged campaign to deport a million people a year would run nearly $1 trillion over a decade.
The numbers are startling, but even more startling is the ripple effect this would have on the US economy. Undocumented immigrants are an integral part of the American workforce, representing 4.6% of the nation’s employed workers. They make up nearly 14% of the construction industry, a sector that already faces a major labor shortage. Mass deportation of undocumented immigrants would disrupt industries such as construction, agriculture and hospitality, where undocumented workers are vital. Removing these workers would not only create gaps that U.S.-born workers are unlikely to fill, but would also slow infrastructure projects, cause food prices to rise and hospitality services to close, costing millions jobs and increasing inflation.
In addition, undocumented immigrants contribute significantly to the American economy in other ways. In 2022 alone, they paid $46.8 billion in federal taxes and $29.3 billion in state and local taxes, while also contributing $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare. Deporting these workers would destroy the tax base and destabilize social safety net programs already under pressure from an aging population.
Beyond the financial toll, the human cost of mass deportation is incalculable. About 5.1 million US citizen children live in mixed-status families where at least one family member is undocumented. Forcibly removing undocumented parents would break up families, placing a tremendous emotional and financial strain on American citizen children. These children may face economic insecurity, homelessness and long-term psychological trauma, issues that would not only harm individual families but also impose costs on society.
Furthermore, the infrastructure required to execute mass deportations would be staggering. The US would need to increase ICE detention capacity by 24 times what it currently has, build 1,000 new immigration courtrooms and hire tens of thousands of new law enforcement officers. This would result in a draconian surveillance state that would intrude on the lives of all Americans, especially in immigrant-laden communities where families would live in constant fear of government raids.
The destruction of America’s social fabric would be profound. Communities would become more fragmented, trust in law enforcement would erode, and racial profiling would likely increase. Even American citizens who happen to share ethnic backgrounds with immigrants can find themselves under scrutiny, adding to an environment of fear and suspicion.
The price of mass deportation is too high for America to bear—both in terms of dollars and in damage to the nation’s spirit. Instead of engaging in policies that fracture communities and shake the economy, the U.S. should pursue more humane and economically sound solutions, such as comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to legal status for those who have contributed to the country’s growth for decades.
The truth is that mass deportation is not only economically unwise, but also morally indefensible. As a nation of immigrants, we must invest in the integration and inclusion of those who call America home, not by pursuing policies that would cause irreparable harm to our economy, our communities, and our shared values. Mass deportation would not make America great; would break it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news paper focused on positive news about the Black Caribbean and Latin American immigrant communities.
