The government’s power to expel noncitizens from the United States is a highly complex and often brutal process. For most people targeted for deportation, it starts with a government claim that they violated the terms of their legal status or otherwise broke the law. Then the noncitizen must prove their case in immigration court, which can involve months of hearings and a lengthy stay in detention while the case is pending.
Most deportations have targeted unauthorized immigrants with criminal records, but Trump kicked off his second term vowing to deport more people than ever before. Carrying out that promise would require a massive expansion of immigration enforcement efforts, disruptions to communities, and racial and ethnic profiling. It could also lead to severe financial and humanitarian impacts.
In addition, deportations would deprive federal, state, and local governments of billions in tax contributions from immigrant households. In 2022, immigrant families paid $46 billion in federal taxes and $256 billion in state and local taxes. In the case of mass deportation, these taxes would be lost from tens of millions of households.
A majority of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country are long-term residents, with deep roots in their neighborhoods and towns, and U.S. citizen children. They would be particularly difficult to remove, even if they have committed serious offenses or been convicted of felonies. Moreover, they would likely face significant legal obstacles and public opposition to any attempt to expand the deportation program to include them.
Moreover, a mass deportation program would pull apart millions of “mixed-status” families—8.5 million Americans with undocumented family members, 5.1 million of whom are children. These households are crucial to our economy and society. They spend $118 billion a year, on average, raising their US-born children to adulthood. They hold 1.2 million mortgages and generate trillions in economic output. Deporting them would deprive the nation of this economic activity and consumer spending.
Many of the countries from which the administration is seeking to repatriate unauthorized immigrants have declared themselves recalcitrant and limit the number of deportation flights they accept each year. As a result, it is diplomatically impossible for the United States to deport all of its unauthorized migrants.
Moreover, a mass deportation initiative would require an unprecedented level of cooperation from foreign governments and would impose severe costs on the American public. For example, the deportations would force local police departments to function as immigration agents, a role they should not be required to assume. Likewise, local businesses would be harmed, and the nation’s safety and security would be at risk. Ultimately, such a program would cost taxpayers billions of dollars and would have profoundly negative social and economic consequences. In short, it is simply not feasible to carry out the president’s goal of deporting a record number of people in his second term. Instead, the government should focus on improving our nation’s borders and investing in local economies to reduce crime and create jobs for everyone.