As we have seen many times in history, often with horrific consequences, new leaders frequently try to purge their enemies when taking power. In the case of the potential second term of Donald Trump, his primary public target appears to be immigrants.
President Trump has often outlined his goal of “mass deportations.” There are numerous issues with this plan—conceptual, legal, and practical. A complete analysis requires a deep dive, but let’s start at the shallow end.
- It’s nearly impossible to simply “look” at immigrants and determine which individuals are “good” or “bad.” Attempting to do so would be racial profiling if done on a case-by-case basis, and if conducted on a large scale—through business raids and sweeps—it could cripple industries that rely on immigrant labor, often undocumented immigrant labor.
- The Commander-in-Chief might seek assistance from citizens, encouraging whistleblowers to act on their biases, possibly unleashing a “Capitol Building Attack” mob mentality to target individuals who “look” or “sound” like immigrants. Such actions have no place in a civilized society and can lead to chaos, discrimination, and even violence.
- Approximately 15 million people in the U.S. are “undocumented” or “illegal,” yet only about 1 million are “in the system,” meaning they have pending immigration court cases for potential deportation, “removal,” or asylum. These pending cases are already backlogged by three years or more. What President Trump is proposing would require the removal of the remaining 14 million people without due process, which is not allowed under current laws. The idea of the government prosecuting those who broke the law by also breaking the law—and disregarding legal procedures—is not only contradictory but breeds further lawlessness and chaos.
- Family disruption/destruction: Many undocumented immigrants have U.S.-born children who are U.S. citizens by birthright. You CANNOT deport a U.S. citizen without due process, and only under very limited circumstances can a U.S. citizen be stripped of citizenship. Revoking this fundamental birthright would require a change in the law, and without that, mass deportations would either leave millions of children orphaned or lead to lawsuits for the removal of U.S. citizens without due process.
- Finally, the financial cost of mass deportation would be astronomical. A more sensible approach would be to legalize those who have not committed criminal offenses that make them deportable, have them pay taxes and fines, and contribute to the economy—rather than spending billions in resources and manpower to remove millions of people. And what about the economic fallout if there were no workers supporting so many essential industries? Can you say “economic collapse”?
What happens the day after all these people are deported? Many would likely attempt to return. Securing borders is nearly impossible in an absolute sense. You can “drain the swamp,” as President Trump likes to say, but it will inevitably refill. We need a functional immigration system: one that removes those who have committed deportable offenses, legalizes those who have otherwise followed the law, secures the borders, and institutes a merit-based immigration system that WORKS.