Washington, DC — Earlier this week, we highlighted the excellent Boston Globe op-ed from leading expert Michael Ettlinger, “Trump’s plan to vaporize the economy,” which analyzed prior U.S. efforts to deport people in great numbers and the harmful economic consequences for the overall U.S. economy, native workers and immigrants alike. As Ettlinger concluded of Donald Trump’s proposal to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” the “idea that deportation helps US citizens has always been an illusion. It’s never worked before and it wouldn’t work this time.”
Other leading experts and voices have similarly been weighing in on what we view as the most consequential immigration and economic policy proposal of the 2024 campaign.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The full costs and consequences of relentless and unsparing mass deportations are staggering to contemplate. The costs would be incalculable on American families and communities and devastating for the U.S. economy and consumers. The more people hear about Trump’s signature economic and immigration plan, the more unpopular it will become – perhaps that’s why Trump and JD Vance are refusing to answer key details. Any reporter writing about the economic consequences of the 2024 campaign ought to include the massive threat of mass deportation. And as the candidates head into next week’s debate, the moderators should remember that on multiple occasions, Trump and his running mate have repeatedly dodged questions about the cost and consequences of mass deportation, including Trump avoiding answering a direct question at the last presidential debate.”
Below are some of the recent, relevant examples and excerpts highlighting the costs and consequences of Trump’s proposed mass deportations.
- The Economist: “Donald Trump’s promise of “mass deportation” is unworkable,” noting, “The placards at Donald Trump’s rallies put it bluntly: “Mass deportations now!” If elected again, Mr. Trump promises the largest expulsion of illegal immigrants in American history … Some 11m people live in America illegally, according to the Migration Policy Institute … Deporting them all could directly cost the government $150bn, or $14,000 per deportee. And that does not include the costs of depriving American firms of millions of workers and customers. Estimates of the cumulative hit to GDP quickly run into the trillions. Nor does it include the cost to families. Most illicit immigrants have been in the country for more than a decade. Expelling them would mean that 4.5m children who are American citizens by birth would be separated from either a parent or their home.”
- “What does Donald Trump’s deportation plan mean for the food system?“ by the Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN) (and affiliated New York Times op-ed): “FERN senior editor Ted Genoways argues that a Trump presidency, built on threats of mass deportation of migrants, would be a disaster for the American food system … If carried out abruptly and thoroughly, as Mr. Trump has promised, such policies would threaten vital areas of the American economy dependent on immigrant labor. Nowhere is that more evident than in the meat industry … If he is elected and makes good on his promise to bar refugees, those producers could lose a vital source of labor overnight. If he succeeds in rescinding certain protections for asylum seekers and speeds the process of deportation trials, the entire industry could be brought to a halt. Meat processors are only just recovering from the ravages of the pandemic. This would push them to the breaking point — and perhaps crash the whole food system.”
- Washington Post (Opinion) Zero-sum thinking is destroying America, by columnist Eduardo Porter: “Zero-sum thinking is showing up everywhere — tainting the politics of immigration and trade, environmental policy and national security. If left unchecked, it will surely undercut the United States’ prosperity. But nobody seems interested in offering an alternative win-win vision of the world. Donald Trump is the champion of this dark understanding. Less immigration, on the whole, makes Americans poorer … it seems economic research cannot cut through a bedrock of hostility and mistrust about foreigners coming to take Americans’ jobs and undercutting their wages. As Michael Clemens of George Mason University put it to me, “Why don’t people look at babies born in the hospital and say that they will put downward pressure on wages? It’s because they are ‘us’; the guy camping in Del Rio (Texas) is ‘not us.’”
- Miami Herald (Editorial): “Trump’s mass deportation ‘solution’ is offensive to Miami,” noting, “The reality is Trump doesn’t want to fix immigration because he believes it is the boogey man that will help get him reelected. Yet deporting about 11 million immigrants here illegally will have dire consequences for our economy nationwide …That’s no solution — just more Trump chaos.”
- “Mass deportations and internment camps would destroy American families,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel op-ed by Tiffany Hankins, the political director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition and FLIC Votes: “Can you imagine a Florida where families live in constant fear? Where children come home from school to find their parents have been detained or deported, or where parents learn that their children were taken from school? This is not a dystopian fantasy — these are potential outcomes if the immigration provisions of Project 2025 become reality. The psychological trauma inflicted on children who suddenly lose their caregivers, the erosion of trust between communities and law enforcement, and the overall climate of fear and suspicion are horrors we should not — and must not — accept.”
- Opinion piece from history professor Daniel Fountain in The Charlotte Observer: “While the circumstances and populations are different, the horrific images from Japanese internment might look similar to what we’d see during a proposed mass deportation. Law enforcement or military members might go house to house searching for those without legal authorization to be in the United States. Families could be separated, as many undocumented immigrants are married to or have children who are citizens. Imagine the heart-wrenching scenes of separation at family homes or at schools as undocumented children are pulled from classrooms.”
