2. Without enough infrastructure and staff
Infrastructure will also be a challenge because in the United States there is not enough space to house migrants while their departure from the country is processed.
Before leaving his position as ambassador Ken Salazar recognized that although threats of deportation generate fear, The United States has a broken immigration system for several quadrenniums.
“There is a lot of fear due to the threats that are made, but the reality is that the United States immigration system has been broken for many years, with President Bush, President Obama, President Trump, President Biden and there has been no a solution,” he assured.
Furthermore, that country also does not have enough immigration personnel. At Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) It only has 6,000 officers who are in charge of monitoring those who are not US citizens, locate and remove those who cannot remain in that nation.
“To execute a mass deportation plan in the US interior, current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations would be insufficient. ICE would need to significantly expand its workforce, which It would require hundreds of millions of dollars to hire thousands of additional agents across the country. Even with much higher staffing levels, ICE would likely need additional support from personnel from all levels of government, including state and local law enforcement, as well as military forces and National Guard units,” warns the National Immigration Forum.
However, among migrants who live in the United States and who are there regularly or irregularly, there is fear.
3. The economic factor
The possible effects on the US economy if migrants are deported will be another obstacle for him to execute his plan.
“Removing a very important part of the workforce can threaten the economy and with that it can create frustration and opposition on the part of corporations, businesses and also unions,” says the professor at the Universidad del Sur. from California.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has highlighted the importance of Mexican workers in the US: without them, Americans would not eat.
“We will always defend that Mexicans who contribute to the economy of the United States, just as they contribute to the economy of Mexico. And that for every job they do, from work in the fields, seven out of every 10 agricultural workers are either Mexicans born in Mexico, or are second-generation Mexicans who left at another time. That is, I would not eat the United States if it were not for the Mexican farm workers,” he said last December 4 in his morning conference.
(Photo: Isabel Mateos Hinojosa/Cuartoscuro.)
An estimate made by the American Immigration Council, states that deporting all migrants in an irregular situation would imply for the United States Domestic Product a reduction of between 4.2 and 6.8%, only comparable to the contraction of 4.3% of the economy during the recession that occurred between 2007 and 2009.
The organization’s estimate also indicates that Trump’s immigration plan would represent losses due to:
- $46 billion in federal taxes
- 29 billion in state and local taxes
- 22 billion dollars in social security.
“Mass deportation would cause a loss of between 4.2 and 6.8% of US GDP, or between $1.1 and $1.7 trillion in 2022 dollars.”
American Immigration Council
