Taking Stock: The Many Costs of Trump/Miller’s Mass Deportation Obsession

America’s Voice has been busy tracking the high costs to America of the Trump administration’s escalating anti-immigrant agenda. As Congress and the country reconvene after summer break, and as we take stock of what has happened and what is to come, we again ask “at what cost” is the Trump administration willing to go to pursue its mass deportation agenda?

Below, we highlight the costs to children and communities; the costs to our economy, and the costs to our democracy due to the mass deportation crusade on display – as well as the potential political costs citing the growing opposition among most Americans witnessing the mass deportation agenda in action:

Costs of mass deportation on children, families, schools and communities

Recent heartbreaking stories of Dreamers detained, moms and dads deported, and, literally, prioritizing the detention of firefighters over the fighting of a fire remind us of the human toll – and screwed up priorities – of the Trump/Miller mass deportation agenda. But the fears and traumas associated with Back to School season this year perhaps most viscerally captures the costs on real people and communities.

●     Trauma on kids this back to school season: At an America’s Voice virtual press conference held in late August, educators, child psychologists, and immigration experts discussed how the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda is harming kids and changing educators’ focus this back-to-school season. Watch a recording of the Back to School virtual event here.

●     During the virtual event, following remarks from leaders from AFT, NEA and a Washington, DC-based child psychologist, Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) said:

“Schools must always be safe havens for learning, free from fear or disruption. Immigration enforcement activities have no place on or around our campuses, as they create an atmosphere of anxiety that harms every student, regardless of background.”

Costs of mass deportation on key American industries and our economy

From worries about crops rotting in fields due to labor shortages to Americans’ paychecks shrinking due to immigration restrictions, the economic cost of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda on key American industries and all of us has been a major storyline this summer.

●     Economists, farmers, workers’ advocates and new analysis on the costs of mass deportation: At an August virtual event convened by America’s Voice, economists, farmers, and workers’ advocates gathered to assess the costs to key American industries and their workforce of the mass deportation agenda. As we noted, “Trump’s mass deportation assault disrupts our economy and drives up prices on groceries and housing for all Americans. This isn’t just bad immigration policy – it’s economic sabotage that hurts working families and damages entire communities.” Read the post event release here and watch a recording of the virtual event here.

●     During the event, Chris Gibbs, President, Rural Voice USA, and Rural Voices Network, noted:

“As a farmer, this immigration report only verifies what I already knew and it’s intuitive to my fellow farmers know as well is this ham-handed immigration enforcement action is by this administration just adds one more layer of uncertainty to the environment created by the tariff debacle, no new real trade deals to market my corn and soy beans and continuing rise in input cost of doing business on the farm.”

●     The event also featured the release of new analysis by Economic Insights and Research Consulting detailing the economic damage already underway on our economy and the ag, construction, and leisure/hospitality industries. Read “Warning Signs of the Economic Harms from Deportations”

Costs to our democracy of the mass deportation agenda

Using the pretext of immigration and crime concerns, the Trump administration is taking aim at core American rights and protections and advancing a brand of authoritarianism that is at odds with core democratic ideals. Meanwhile, Trump/Miller are building his own personal police force. Given the unprecedented funding for ICE, and the administration’s disdain for law and order – will there be any hiring standards beyond fealty to MAGA?

●     Immigration is the “tip of the spear” in broader dangerous agenda: Denying people the right to bond hearings, targeting political opponents, firing immigration judges and fast tracking the removal of individuals without due process are all interrelated parts of the mass deportation crusade and elements that threaten all Americans’ basic rights and protections. Read the recent AV statement: “Trump’s Escalating Attacks on Democracy”

●     As Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) noted about the deployment of military against American communities:

“Any rational person who has spent even the most minimal amount of time studying human history has to ask themselves one important question: Once they get the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law, what comes next?”

●     New task force and ICE recruitment – creating Stephen Miller’s private army? Included in a late August executive order was the creation of a new task force, helmed by Stephen Miller, that will “create an online portal for ‘Americans with law enforcement or other relevant backgrounds and experience’ to apply to join federal agents in enforcing Mr. Trump’s ‘crime emergency’ order” per the NYT. Meanwhile, much about the unprecedented ICE hiring spree should raise alarms – from cash bounties for arrests and hiring teenagers to the disturbing motivations of potential applicants. Read more on the topic here and read a related assessment in The Bulwark here.

The public opposition and political costs to mass deportation agenda

The more Americans witness the Trump/Miller mass deportation agenda, the more they reject it. A strong majority of the public, including Latino voters, are consistent in what they want: order at the border, enforcement targeted at actual public safety threats, legal channels for hardworking individuals and a process for Dreamers and long-settled immigrants to become U.S. citizens – not targets for detention or deportation. And a range of recent polling on the administration’s militarization of American communities similarly finds broad opposition.

●     A recent America’s Voice public opinion memo assesses a range of immigration polling and reveals five key lessons on immigration: Find the memo here

●     Listen to a recent virtual event discussion about current immigration polling and politics, featuring pollsters and experts from Global Strategy Group, Third Way, UnidosUS, and America’s Voice. Find recording here

●     Read new America’s Voice analysis, including a roundup of recent polling: “Trump’s Invasions Are Losing In The Legal Courts And Court of Public Opinion”

Concluding thoughts

The high costs of the mass deportation agenda are growing more clear. They also are being used as a pretext and excuse – the “tip of the spear” – for the broader and dangerous assault on our democracy. We’re in a perilous moment, not just for immigrant communities but for all Americans concerned with our basic conceptions of self-governance, our rights and core pillars of democracy.

It is fully within the power of Congress – including some of the Republicans selectively speaking out about the harms and excesses of mass deportation- to push for a new path forward on immigration and to defend our democracy. They are on the wrong side of voters and the wrong side of history.