Donald Trump plans to seal the border on day one.
Responding to a question submitted via the #AskTrump hashtag, Donald Trump made it clear yesterday that he plans to roll out his anti-immigrant plan during his first day in office.
“First thing I’d do in my first day as President is close up our border. So that illegal immigrants cannot come into our country… People can come into our country, but only legally. I will close up those borders.”
You can watch the full response below:
.@MarieLeff #asktrump pic.twitter.com/ufCLFKeFrN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2015
Much can be said about Donald Trump’s hate filled rhetoric, which has led some of his supporters to harass Latinos and immigrants, but this latest claim puts a timeline on an aggressive and massive deportation plan.
Let’s take a quick look at the numbers of what it would cost to actually carry out Trump’s extreme immigration proposal.
In 2010, The Center for American Progress’ Immigration Policy Center published a report that stated that sealing the U.S. – Mexico border, along with the carrying out the mass deportation strategy that Donald Trump continues to promote, would cost upwards of “$2.6 trillion in lost, cumulative GDP over 10 years” and would cause “widespread job losses.”
And in 2013, Bloomberg reported on a study that pegged the cost of such a feat around “$28 billion per year—or roughly the same amount taxpayers spend on the Department of Justice’s annual budget.” Bloomberg continued that the same study indicated that even with extra funding, the border would not be sealed until 2019.
Of course, this is only one of the multiple impacts that Trump’s immigration plan would have on our country. You learn more about what would it take to actually carry out such a plan here.
As Donald Trump begins to slip on the polls, can he afford to continue to talk about immigration policy without providing substantive details?
