WASHINGTON — Immigration advocates and civil rights groups are preparing to confront President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises to crack down on immigration, from reviving controversial policies from his first term to enacting mass deportations.

Trump has pledged to end, immediately after taking office, parole programs that have allowed immigrants to work and live in the country legally. In these humanitarian parole programs, starting in 2021, there were more than 1 million immigrants with temporary protections.

What will likely follow immediately is the reimplementation of its previous immigration policies, such as the ban on allowing people from predominantly Muslim countries to enter the United States and the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires that applicants asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while they wait for their cases.

Immigration groups are preparing for those policies and those that will follow before Inauguration Day.

Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, laid out a sobering reality.

“We recognize that many feel terrified by what the next four years will bring,” he said in a statement. “While we cannot prevent all harm from happening, we say to everyone who suffers harm: we are here to do everything in our power to support and protect each other.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which was at the forefront of challenging some of Trump’s toughest immigration policies during his first term, said on social media that it is prepared for legal challenges starting on Trump’s first day in office. the charge.

Greisa Martínez Rosas, executive director of the largest immigrant youth organization, United We Dream, said in a statement that with Trump’s promise to plan mass deportations, they are “clear-eyed about the fight ahead.”

“We will use and grow our power to new heights, building the largest pro-immigrant movement this country has ever seen, to fight white nationalism and enact a vision for the future that honors our values ​​of a pluralistic democracy where we can all live and prosper. without fear,” said Martínez Rosas.

Deportations

Some immediate deportations could include those already in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which as of September was 37,395.

It could also include expanding expedited deportations, meaning that if a person who lacks permanent legal status remains in the country for two years without a court hearing or any type of authorization, they can be deported without a hearing before a judge.

That type of expulsion is limited to 100 miles from a border. However, during the first Trump administration, that zone was expanded to the rest of the country. A second Trump administration could do that again.

The Migration Policy Institute, an immigration think tank, has estimated that “the expansion of accelerated expulsion within the United States could apply to up to 288,000 people.”

Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from 2017 to 2018, recently told CBS News that the goal would be mass deportations.

“It won’t be a massive sweep of neighborhoods,” he said. “They will be selective arrests. “We will know who we are going to arrest, where we are most likely to find them based on numerous investigative processes.”

Funds

The cost of mass deportations would also be at stake.

Trump’s signature campaign promise to enact mass deportations would be a costly undertaking that would require congressional approval, something that could be made easier if the incoming president is given control of both chambers.

The American Immigration Council, in a conservative estimate, found that it would cost $968 billion to expel the country’s estimated 13 million immigrants illegally over the next ten years.

According to the analysis, it would cost the government $89.3 billion in arrests, $167.8 billion in detaining massive numbers of people, $34 billion in legal prosecution and $24 billion in deportations.

That funding would have to be allocated through Congress.

As of Thursday morning, it was unclear whether Trump would deal with a divided Congress or united control of the Republican Party. Republicans have flipped the Senate, and while there are still too many House elections left to project control of the chamber, the GOP was inching toward a slim majority.

Economic impact

Economic Experts have warned of the consequences of laying off millions of workers.

Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, attempted to analyze the economic effects of mass deportations.

“If any president decides to carry out mass deportations, it would come at an extraordinary cost to the government while devastating the economy,” Robbins said in a statement Wednesday.

“It is critical that policymakers and the American public understand what this would entail: tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, already weakened industries devastated, millions of people imprisoned, and thousands of families torn apart causing widespread terror and chaos in communities.” from all over the country.”

In 2022, households led by undocumented immigrants paid $75.6 billion in total taxes, according to the American Immigration Council. It is estimated that around 4.8% of the US workforce is made up of unauthorized immigrants, according to the Pew Research Center.

Last updated at 2:19 p.m., November 7, 2024