Washington, DC — The Trump campaign’s signature policy pledge of unsparing mass deportations would be a budget buster and vaporize the U.S. economy, killing jobs and spiking inflation. As it continues to come in for more criticism and attention, with a host of key observers highlighting the potential damage to all Americans, Republican candidates and lawmakers are dodging specific questions and distancing themselves from the reality of the politically toxic Trump/Vance signature economic and immigration policy issue.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The most consequential economic policy Donald Trump has put on the table is the mass deportation of millions. We cannot dismiss his calls to use the military and invoke the Alien Enemies Act to build massive camps his henchman Stephen Miller described as ‘greater than any national infrastructure project we’ve done to date.’ They want to remove 5% of the workforce, millions of taxpayers contributing billions to our coffers, and the parents of millions of American citizens. Mass deportation would be a horrendous, self-inflicted wound if allowed to happen.
No wonder Trump, JD Vance and Republican candidates are refusing to provide key details of their plans or describe how the mass purges would work, their plans for Dreamers, spouses of U.S. citizens, and what would happen to more than 5 million American citizens with at least one undocumented parent. What would happen to the dairy industry in Wisconsin or the STEM and agricultural economy of Michigan or the hospitality economy of Nevada? One reason Republicans aren’t offering specifics is that they know that the more Americans learn about the specific costs and consequences of mass deportations, the more politically toxic the GOP’s signature policy item will become. We all deserve to know the key details of Trump’s mass deportation promise and where every Republican candidate stands on their Party’s signature pledge.”
Underscoring the point about the political toxicity of the mass deportation details, October polling from the University of Maryland, Program for Public Consultation (PPC) in six swing states and nationally, finds when voters are provided a full description of Trump’s proposed mass deportations and related details, they overwhelmingly prefer the details of an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants – by a 58-26% margin nationally.
Among the leading voices highlighting the scope, costs, and consequences of this mass deportation agenda, include:
- HuffPost’s Igor Bobic, “Republicans Duck Questions About Trump’s Plan For Mass Deportations,” noting: “ask Republican lawmakers and candidates about the particulars of what could be a ‘bloody story,’ as the GOP presidential nominee himself acknowledged last month, and they quickly shift the subject or downplay its implications, a sign of how eager they are to exploit their advantage on immigration issues against Democrats without actually owning up to the extremeness of what their party’s leader is proposing. ‘That’s a very big logistical undertaking,’ Nevada Republican Sam Brown said Thursday in a debate with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) when asked if he supported the proposal … Rosen, meanwhile, followed up with some relevant questions. ‘How would that happen? Who would get caught in that? How many innocent people would get rounded up?’ she asked on Thursday, pushing for passage of the bipartisan border security bill that Republicans had blocked on orders from Trump earlier this year. Brown let her questions pass without a response.”
- CNN’s Catherine Shoichet, “Trump’s mass deportation plans would be costly. Here’s why,” noting: “Former President Donald Trump vows he’ll kick millions of undocumented immigrants out of the US if he’s reelected. In the months since cheering supporters waved ‘mass deportation now’ signs at the Republican National Convention, Trump and his surrogates have offered various visions for how they’d achieve this goal. But they’ve left no doubt that it’s a top priority … Experts say any path a future Trump administration picks would be complicated and costly, due to both the billions of dollars needed to fund mass deportation and the significant ripple effects that would hit the economy. “
- NBC News’s Jing Feng and Nicole Acevedo, “Trump vows to deport millions. Builders say it would drain their crews and drive up home costs,” noting: “Former President Donald Trump’s pledge to ‘launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country’ would hamstring construction firms already facing labor shortages and push record home prices higher, say industry leaders, contractors and economists. ‘It would be detrimental to the construction industry and our labor supply and exacerbate our housing affordability problems,’ said Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders.”
- CBS News’ Julia Ingram, “Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants would cost hundreds of billions, CBS News analysis shows, noting: “Immigration researchers, lawyers, and economists have pointed to immense constitutional, humanitarian and economic problems posed by Trump’s oft-repeated pledge. But beyond the anticipated damage to immigrant families, communities and local economies, the roundup and deportation of some 11 million people is near impossible to bankroll, according to an analysis of U.S. budget and immigration court data by CBS News.”
Additional Reads and Resources
- American Immigration Council report on the costs of mass deportation finds it would cause GDP to drop by 4.2-6.8%, which is more than the Great Recession. The full report and findings are worth reading and available here.
- America’s Voice analysis, “Trump’s Signature Promise to Rip Apart American Families, Communities, and the U.S. Economy”
- America’s Voice press briefing on the economic, logistical, community, and family consequences of mass deportation, featuring a range of experts highlighting why the proposed unsparing mass deportations would be devastating for all of America. Watch the briefing here.
- America’s Voice analysis, “Trump’s Team Real Scheme Revealed: A Pledge to Deport Immigrants with LEGAL Status”
- Read The Boston Globe op-ed from leading expert Michael Ettlinger, “Trump’s plan to vaporize the economy” and find related economic analyses: “Literature Review on the Economic Consequences of the Deportation of Unauthorized Immigrants,” by Robert G. Lynch (Washington College – Department of Economics) and Michael Ettlinger (University of New Hampshire) and “The Economic Impact on Citizens and Authorized Immigrants of Mass Deportation” by Robert Lynch and Michael Ettlinger.
