Wednesday, December 25

Trump's mass deportations: what would be the economic impact for the United States?

Around $315,000 million dollars would be the cost to the United States of an operation to deport more than two million immigrantsconsidering raids, detention and expulsion of people.

To that cost must be added the impact on the economy, considering that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that The arrival of immigrants between 2021 and 2023 meant $10 billion for the economy American in the next ten years.

The estimate of the operating cost was made by the American Immigration Council, which emphasized that it was a “very conservative estimate.”

The report, the organization indicates, does not include the long-term costs of a sustained mass deportation operation.

“[Tampoco incluye] the incalculable additional costs necessary to acquire the institutional capacity to expel more than 13 million people in a short period of time, incalculable because there is simply no reality in which such a unique operation is possible,” it is noted.

The report emphasizes that the prison capacity of the United States would not allow for holding all the immigrants that are intended to be detained, prior to the deportation process, since until 2022 there were 1.9 million people in county, state prisons. and federal.

Trump’s promised mass deportation will require a long-term operationwhich includes the arrest, prosecution, detention and expulsion of at least one million people a year.

Experts point out that immigrants have the option to “self-deport,” but they assume that if 20 percent did so, the cost to American finances would still be high. In a decade the impact would be $967.9 billion dollars.

“This would require the United States to build and maintain an ICE detention capacity 24 times greater than what currently exists,” it states.

Tom Homan will be the “border czar” and will coordinate efforts for increased surveillance and processing of migrants starting in January 2025.
Credit: Susan Walsh | AP

Tom Homan, named by President-elect Trump as the “border czar,” has indicated that the operation against immigrants will include those with a criminal record, but also those who have recently entered.

“The cruelty and human cost that indiscriminate and ruthless mass deportations will bring will be incalculable,” said Douglas Rivlin, senior communications director at America’s Voice. “Let’s be clear: Trump’s mass deportation agenda will act as a wrecking ball for working families.”

He added that the economic impact will not only be for families, but for “all Americans,” because inflation could skyrocket, deficits increase, cutting incomes and contracting GDP and employment.

“It will certainly wreak havoc on specific industries, but the ripple effects will be felt in every corner of the American economy,” Rivlin said.

Summary trials at the door?

Lawyers agree that No immigrant detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers can be deported without a hearing before a judge.who grants the final deportation order.

“It is very important that members of our community understand that the government can’t just detain you and deport you from the United States without your permission“explained lawyer Eduardo Herrera, co-founder of Brigante Law Group Inc., a law firm that operates in California and Mexico City. “We all have the right to appear in front of a judge. We can apply for political asylum, cancellation and deportation… in front of an immigration judge we can file a procedure for residency.”

To process the millions of immigration cases in court, the American Immigration Council report highlights that more than a thousand new immigration courtrooms will have to be implemented.

“The government would also have to establish and maintain more than a thousand new immigration courtrooms to process people at that rate,” he says.

In 2018, the Trump Administration held summary trialsto process dozens of immigrants at the same time, under “Operation Streamline”, in provisional courts in Texas, as The Intercept reported in Pecos, Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso.

The main problem with these summary trials is that the immigrants did not have adequate legal representation.

Keep reading:
• Trump assures that mass deportations are not “a question of price”
• Massachusetts police will not collaborate with Trump’s mass deportations
• They warn that Trump promises mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act