Many Americans think of deportation as a way to get rid of bad or unemployed people, but there are many other ways for immigration authorities to remove someone from the United States. When we talk about deportation, we usually mean the removal of “illegal aliens” (people who entered the country without a valid visa or overstayed their visa). Some immigrants who are deported leave voluntarily before the process begins, with the help of nonprofit legal services. Others are forced to leave by air at U.S. government expense, either because ICE officials have charged them with a crime or they were ordered to leave by an immigration judge.
A mass deportation campaign would require billions of dollars to identify, arrest, and transport 11 million people, not to mention the broader infrastructure that is needed to support a large-scale deportation operation, including new prisons and massive amounts of police officers. These efforts would cause tremendous disruption and harm in communities across the country, separating families and causing anxiety for those with lawful status who fear they could be targeted by the government.
At the same time, such a policy would have devastating economic consequences, particularly in places like Texas, California, and Florida, where the majority of undocumented residents live. Deportations of this scale would remove millions of workers from the economy, causing major disruptions in industries that rely on them. These include construction (where one in eight workers is undocumented); agriculture (where more than 28 percent of workers are undocumented); and hospitality (where about a fifth of all workers are without status).
The negative effects of deportations don’t stop at the border. Research shows that they also impact migrants’ communities of origin, where homicide rates increase around repatriation centers. This is because criminal groups know that returnees are likely to have financial precarity and face stigma, making them easier targets for coercion. Forced returns have also shifted the dynamics of migration, with remittances from the United States falling and migrant children growing up in more precarious circumstances back home.
The moral case against mass deportation is clear. It would hurt every American, but especially hard-working, immigrant families. It would cost the federal budget billions, and hurt state economies that depend on a significant portion of their working population. It would tear families apart, and it would harm communities, with mixed-status households most likely to suffer as breadwinners are removed from their homes. And it would send the message that the U.S. doesn’t want or need its neighbors, a dangerous message that would be reinforced by the visible and harmful impacts of mass deportations in their communities. The bottom line is that there is no way to engage in mass deportations without fundamentally changing the American government and America itself. Read the full report.