By Felicia J. Persaud
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Oct. 18, 2024: With days remaining until the November 5th elections and Donald Trump’s primary solution to America’s challenges being the mass deportation of immigrants, I made a 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, much like Adolph Hitler before him, has once again turned to xenophobia as a central campaign tactic, promoting mass deportation as a catch-all solution to the country’s issues. However, the reality is that deporting millions would severely damage the U.S. economy, costing taxpayer billions, while shattering families, and fundamentally altering 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 11 million undocumented immigrants, plus the 2.3 million migrants who crossed the U.S. southern border between January 2023 and April 2024, would cost an estimated $315 billion. This price tag is not just a one-time expense; a prolonged campaign of deporting one million people per year would balloon to nearly $1 trillion over the course of a decade.
The numbers are staggering, but even more startling are the ripple effect this would have on the U.S. economy. Undocumented immigrants are an integral part of the American workforce, representing 4.6% of employed workers in the country. They make up nearly 14% of the construction industry, a sector already facing a severe labor shortage. Deporting undocumented immigrants en masse would disrupt industries like 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 down infrastructure projects, cause food prices to spike, and shutter hospitality services, costing millions of jobs and driving up inflation.
Furthermore, undocumented immigrants contribute significantly to the U.S. 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 gut 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. Roughly 5.1 million U.S. citizen children live in mixed-status families, where at least one family member is undocumented. Forcibly removing undocumented parents would lead to the fracturing of families, placing tremendous emotional and financial strain on U.S. citizen children. These children could face economic insecurity, homelessness, and long-term psychological trauma, issues that would not only harm individual families but also impose costs on society.
On top of that, the infrastructure required to execute mass deportations would be staggering. The U.S. would need to increase ICE detention capacity by 24 times what it currently holds, 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, particularly in immigrant-heavy communities where families would live in constant fear of government raids.
The devastation to America’s social fabric would be profound. Communities would become more fragmented, trust in law enforcement would erode, and racial profiling would likely rise. Even American citizens who happen to share ethnic backgrounds with immigrants could find themselves under scrutiny, adding to an environment of fear and suspicion.
The price of mass deportation is far too high for America to bear – both in terms of dollars and in damage to the nation’s soul. Rather than engaging in policies that fracture communities and tank the economy, the U.S. must pursue more humane and economically sound solutions, like comprehensive immigration reform that provides a pathway to legal status for those who have contributed to the country’s growth for decades.
The truth is, mass deportation is not only economically reckless but also morally indefensible. As a nation of immigrants, we should be investing in the integration and inclusion of those who call America home, not pursuing policies that would cause irreparable harm to our economy, our communities, and our shared values. Mass deportation would not make America great; it would break it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focused on positive news about Black immigrant communities from the Caribbean and Latin America.
