The deportation of thousands of undocumented immigrants is continuing under President Donald Trump’s executive order to launch “the largest deportation program in American history.” ICE raids started in Chicago and are now making their way across major U.S. cities.
Despite Trump and many other politicians claiming that mass deportation is for the well-being of the U.S., it will lead to many economic, social and civil rights issues.
Since the beginning of his second term in office, Trump has taken many actions that progress his deportation plan. He has opened previously protected places, like schools, churches and hospitals, to ICE officers, as well as announcing plans to send 30,000 undocumented immigrants to Guantanamo Bay.
While Guantanamo Bay is located in Cuba, it has been leased to the U.S. indefinitely due to a 1934 treaty. It has been previously used for the detention of high-risk criminals and terrorists. At its peak, it held around 680 prisoners, meaning the facilities are likely nowhere near the ability to hold the thousands of people Trump wants to send there.
Not to mention, many of the prisoners from the facility have reported inhumane conditions, violations of human rights and even torture. Although the U.S. has denied these claims, multiple have been proven and there have been reports of widespread hunger strikes by the prisoners.
Due to this, many activists have claimed that Trump’s plan with Guantanamo Bay would be considered a concentration camp by definition and will likely pose incredible harm to the people sent there.
Even without the risk of Guantanamo Bay, ICE detention centers have been committing inhumane acts toward detainees for a long time now. It is common for reports of abuse and unsustainable conditions to pop up from ICE detention centers all over the country.
There have also been multiple cases of ICE questioning and arresting people without adequate reasoning. Some of the more recent instances include Native Americans, seemingly due to their shared physical traits with Latinos. Now many communities are fearful of racial profiling and have been urged to carry documentation everywhere they go.
When ICE conducts raids, they leave a massive impact on the families affected. Many undocumented immigrants live in households with mixed legal statuses and a large number of them have children who are legal via birthright citizenship. When people in the household are deported, it separates families and can leave children without parents. Mixed legal status households could also see a massive drop in their income if their loved ones are deported, throwing many people into poverty.
Due to the targeting of undocumented immigrants, specifically from the southern border, people have begun to believe that all are dangerous and violent criminals. On the contrary, local and federal crime statistics show that undocumented people tend to commit less crime than other U.S. citizens.
Trump has been a huge player in this fearmongering and spreading of disinformation. In one of his notorious speeches back in 2015, he was quoted saying in relation to Mexican undocumented immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
Most undocumented immigrants participate in the U.S. labor force. It is estimated that 8 million undocumented immigrants are employed, especially in agriculture, construction and hospitality. These jobs tend to have low pay with intense labor and can be harmful to the body. If the immigrants who work these jobs were to be deported, there is not much likelihood that the roles could be replaced, especially since natural-born citizens are less likely to work in these positions.
Destabilizing the job market will by no means be the only cost of mass deportation. It is estimated that approximately $88 billion is spent annually to fund mass deportation efforts in the U.S.
Undocumented immigrants also have been estimated to pay around $100 billion in taxes every year, according to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, and they fuel the economy by being consumers. Many are entrepreneurs and own restaurants and shops. Without these people, local and federal economies could be thrown completely off-balance.
As Trump continues to move forward with this deportation plan, it becomes increasingly important that we acknowledge all the effects this will have on the U.S. and the people within it.
Hilary Valdez can be reached at arg-opinion@uidaho.edu.