Politics

/

ArcaMax

A million Floridians would be kicked out under Trump's mass deportation plans, report says

Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald on

Published in Political News

MIAMI — As many as one in 20 Floridians, a million people, could be expelled from the country under a mass deportation plan that is a cornerstone of former president Donald Trump’s campaign, according to a report released by a Washington think tank and immigration advocacy group.

The American Immigration Council, based in Washington D.C., put numbers to Trump’s sweeping plan to deport 13.3 million undocumented or otherwise removable immigrants in the United States should he return to the White House. The immigration advocacy think tank found that the policy would be economically devastating for Florida, one of the states with the largest foreign-born populations, as well as for the country overall.

A one-time mass deportation campaign to expel millions from the country would cost at minimum $315 billion, the researchers found. But the group emphasized that this was a conservative estimate and that the ramifications would go far beyond the cost of the operation, which Trump has said would involve detention camps.

Millions of families would be separated, existing job shortages would get worse, and the U.S. economy would shrink, the report, published on Oct. 2. said.

The annual U.S. GDP could drop by as much as 6.8%, according to the report, while government tax coffers that pay for schools and other critical services would also take a hit. Undocumented immigrants paid nearly $70 billion in local, state, and federal taxes in 2022, the researchers found.

“Our analysis shows the vital role that undocumented immigrants play in the U.S. as workers, taxpayers, and consumers and if they were to be deported we would see a major shock to the U.S. labor force that will lead to a reduction in the U.S. GDP,” said Nan Wu, the American Immigration Council’s research director.

And while undocumented immigrants cannot tap into federal social-safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare, those programs would lose out on tens of billions of dollars in tax contributions should undocumented immigrants be deported.

 

“Not getting the payments from those immigrants will make it increasingly difficult to keep those social safety net programs solvent,” said Wu. The U.S. population of people aged 65 or over has grown rapidly over the last decade.

The report also found that Florida would lose about 5% of its population, or about 1 million undocumented residents. That would mean that several key industries, like agriculture and construction, would run into serious troubles with job shortages and rocketing inflation, Wu said.

To arrive at the findings, the researchers used Census Bureau data as well as other federal government statistics. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that between 2018 and 2012, the vast majority of the country’s undocumented immigrants had been in the United States for a decade or longer. Previous estimates in the last decade have also suggested that Florida’s undocumented population is between 590,000 and 775,000.

“The majority have been in the country for a long time,” Wu said, “building their lives, having families and contributing to their communities.”

The Trump campaign has not previously responded to specific questions from the Miami Herald about how a mass deportation campaign would work. But in a statement from May, one of its spokespeople said that “the millions of illegals Biden has resettled across America should not get comfortable because very soon they will be going home.”


©2024 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Related Channels

ACLU

ACLU

By The ACLU
Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman

By Amy Goodman
Armstrong Williams

Armstrong Williams

By Armstrong Williams
Austin Bay

Austin Bay

By Austin Bay
Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro

By Ben Shapiro
Betsy McCaughey

Betsy McCaughey

By Betsy McCaughey
Bill Press

Bill Press

By Bill Press
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas

By Cal Thomas
Christine Flowers

Christine Flowers

By Christine Flowers
Clarence Page

Clarence Page

By Clarence Page
Danny Tyree

Danny Tyree

By Danny Tyree
David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi

By David Harsanyi
Debra Saunders

Debra Saunders

By Debra Saunders
Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager

By Dennis Prager
Dick Polman

Dick Polman

By Dick Polman
Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson

By Erick Erickson
Froma Harrop

Froma Harrop

By Froma Harrop
Jacob Sullum

Jacob Sullum

By Jacob Sullum
Jamie Stiehm

Jamie Stiehm

By Jamie Stiehm
Jeff Robbins

Jeff Robbins

By Jeff Robbins
Jessica Johnson

Jessica Johnson

By Jessica Johnson
Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower

By Jim Hightower
Joe Conason

Joe Conason

By Joe Conason
Joe Guzzardi

Joe Guzzardi

By Joe Guzzardi
John Micek

John Micek

By John Micek
John Stossel

John Stossel

By John Stossel
Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer

By Josh Hammer
Judge Andrew Napolitano

Judge Andrew Napolitano

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Laura Hollis

Laura Hollis

By Laura Hollis
Marc Munroe Dion

Marc Munroe Dion

By Marc Munroe Dion
Michael Barone

Michael Barone

By Michael Barone
Michael Reagan

Michael Reagan

By Michael Reagan
Mona Charen

Mona Charen

By Mona Charen
Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

By Oliver North and David L. Goetsch
R. Emmett Tyrrell

R. Emmett Tyrrell

By R. Emmett Tyrrell
Rachel Marsden

Rachel Marsden

By Rachel Marsden
Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry

By Rich Lowry
Robert B. Reich

Robert B. Reich

By Robert B. Reich
Ruben Navarrett Jr

Ruben Navarrett Jr

By Ruben Navarrett Jr.
Ruth Marcus

Ruth Marcus

By Ruth Marcus
S.E. Cupp

S.E. Cupp

By S.E. Cupp
Salena Zito

Salena Zito

By Salena Zito
Star Parker

Star Parker

By Star Parker
Stephen Moore

Stephen Moore

By Stephen Moore
Susan Estrich

Susan Estrich

By Susan Estrich
Ted Rall

Ted Rall

By Ted Rall
Terence P. Jeffrey

Terence P. Jeffrey

By Terence P. Jeffrey
Tim Graham

Tim Graham

By Tim Graham
Tom Purcell

Tom Purcell

By Tom Purcell
Veronique de Rugy

Veronique de Rugy

By Veronique de Rugy
Victor Joecks

Victor Joecks

By Victor Joecks
Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne Allyn Root

By Wayne Allyn Root

Comics

Peter Kuper Christopher Weyant Dana Summers Tim Campbell John Branch A.F. Branco