Reference image. Economists have warned that any mass deportation attempt would have a significant impact on the US workforce.
Photo: EFE – ALLISON DINNER
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Since 2016, when Donald Trump ran for the presidency of the United States, the mass deportation of irregular migrants was the solution that the Republican proposed to face the exodus of people who came to the country in search of the American dream.
In the first campaign and during his presidency, he promised that up to three million people would be deported, although in the end he expelled many fewer than he had said.
This time, if he is re-elected, according to Stephen Miller, one of his advisers, “the domestic deportation operation will be the largest in US history,” even the military would be involved.
How much would the deportations cost?
In 2015, a conservative analysis by the American Action Forum estimated that arresting and removing all undocumented immigrants from the United States would cost at least $100 billion and take 20 years, the television network summarized. CNN.
It was expected that there would be around 11 million people and about 20% of the population could choose to leave the country voluntarily.
Another report from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed that the average cost of detaining, processing and deporting an undocumented immigrant in the United States in 2016 was US$1,978.
But a Pew Research Center report in July noted that the undocumented population has likely grown over the past two years. In addition, flights are now more expensive and the logistics around them are more complicated.
Thus, if one million undocumented immigrants are deported per year, the process could cost more than US$960 billion over more than a decade, according to the American Immigration Council.
This would be the mass deportation process that Trump plans
Miller has said a mass deportation operation would require officials to build multiple immigration detention facilities that could hold about 70,000 people, more than 10 times the capacity of the seven soft-sided facilities in the 2023 budget.
It would be “larger than any national infrastructure project we have done to date,” said the candidate’s advisor.
Running a soft-sided shelter can cost up to $40 million a month, Jason Houser, former ICE chief of staff, told Reuters. CNN.
“It’s not just about putting up a tent,” he said. “I have to staff it, I have to put security there, I have to put doctors there, I have to have some sanitation there, I have to put doctors there, I have to put child care there,” he added.
Using more space in state and local prison facilities instead of building new facilities would also come at a high cost, Houser said. It would cost between US$300 to US$350 per night.
And if deportations were to increase to the level Trump has proposed, detention space is not the only thing that would need to grow. The ICE workforce would need to increase dramatically in size.
“You’re talking about a five- or six-fold increase in the size of ICE operations… hiring thousands of new officers, building tens of thousands of new detention beds,” said John Sandweg, acting director of the agency during the administration. Obama, for the American media.
That would require Congress to authorize billions of dollars in additional spending, something Sandweg describes as “incredibly difficult.”
“Don’t send murderers or crazy people”
During a forum with Latino voters a few days ago, Trump assured that he supports legal immigration and strong borders, but reiterated that there are countries that send their prisoners and empty asylums to send them to the United States.
At the meeting organized by Univision, Trump assured that his immigration policy was “an unprecedented success” and that Biden should have maintained his strategy on the southern border such as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which returns asylum seekers to Mexico while their applications are resolved.
In the opinion of the Republican candidate, countries like Venezuela “open prisons and asylums” to send criminals and crazy people to the United States, a generalization that stigmatizes undocumented immigrants and is not supported by data.
“With me (the immigrants) came legally and the system worked well (…) Let them come legally and not release murderers, drug traffickers and terrorists,” said the Republican candidate.
The former president reiterated hoaxes or inaccuracies such as that “the prison population in the world is decreasing because they are sent to the United States.” or that “they empty the prisons of Venezuela so that they come here.” “We want people to arrive, but not murderers,” he reiterated.
But knowing the importance of the Latino vote, Trump tried to win them over with a promise to support small businesses, attract investment and new jobs, and reduce inflation with lower energy prices and greater hydrocarbon exploitation.
“(Hispanics) are 65 million Americans. We represent 20% of the country’s population. We will always remember what has been said and done. Our community is not going to allow Trump to turn us into foreigners in our own land,” said Janet Murguía, president of UnidosUS Action Fund, a nonpartisan organization that acts as the largest national organization defending the civil rights of Hispanics.
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