As President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration gets closer, his intended mass deportation plans are at the forefront of the conversation given their potential impact in everything from the economy to the societal fabric of many communities throughout the country.
But analysts are also warning about the feasibility of Trump's plan to conduct the "largest deportation operation in U.S. history," especially considering he plans to target the some 11 million people living unlawfully.
Logistics and elevated costs are the main obstacles cited by different studies, which detail such operations would costs hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a Noticias Telemundo recap of different studies and statements by specialized entities and officials.
A recent study by the American Immigration Council claimed that the cost of arresting one million undocumented immigrants in a single year could clock in at $7 billion, almost as much as the whole yearly budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The effort would also require hiring some 31,000 new employees.
Overall, the report explained, deporting some 13 million undocumented people would have an estimated cost of $315 billion. Should it be extended over a decade, deporting about a million people a year, the amount would climb to almost $968 billion. in the meantime, the GDP would drop by 6.8% and billions would be lost in uncollected taxes.
For Trump to achieve his promise, he would have to stage a "full-forced attack to the current immigration enforcement law," said in a CNN interview John Sandweg, acting ICE director during the second Obama term. "Under the current legal framework and with the existing resources, ICE can't get close to the figures Trump has been discussing. A million deportations a year," he added.
Officials in duty have also warned about high costs, the ICE Baltimore director Matthew Elliston telling CBS News that Maryland could "never get the resources or the infrastructure, which would be our biggest challenges."
"And the amount of money that detaining them all would cost. It would be Department of Defense-level type of spending, it's insane," the official added, referencing the almost $850 billion estimated by the Biden administration for the DoD next year.
Legal issues are another problem, as the Supreme Court has ruled that undocumented immigrants cannot be expelled without due process before immigration court. There are currently some 3 million pending cases, half of them asylum requests, according to immigration lawyer Kathleen Bush-Joseph. To expedite processes, the government would have to open and sustain over 1,000 new courts and hire over 2,000 new judges.
Incoming Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would "gather all federal and state power needed to conduct" the operations, but didn't provide further details.
A potential way into getting the necessary power would be the declaring a national emergency, something Trump already said is planning on doing.
Trump gave the confirmation on his social media platform, Truth Social, echoing a comment made by Tom Fitton, president of conservative group Judicial Watch. Fitton had posted earlier this month that Trump was "prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program." Trump reposted the message with the caption "TRUE!!" It is unclear whether his administration will encounter legal challenges to do so and how quickly it could proceed, but mass deportations are shaping up to dominate the headlines over the next months.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
