Immigrants enhance the US economy - deportations could wreck the economy
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Since day one, Trump has launched a blatantly hateful agenda
against immigrants. He’s issued executive orders that would unlawfully shut down asylum at the U.S. southern
border, use the military to separate families,
and make it easier to detain and deport migrants — including detaining them at the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.
Meanwhile, anti-immigrant lawmakers in Congress gave Trump a
helping hand by passing a law punishing undocumented people, including minors, with
deportation for minor offenses — even if they’re not convicted.
These attacks come at an enormous cost to the entire
country. The American Immigration Council estimates that mass deportations will
cost $88 billion per year over the course
of a decade.
My colleagues and I calculated that this $88 billion could
instead erase medical debt for 40 million
Americans. Even just a fraction of it — $11 billion — could provide free lunch to all school children in
the United States.
That’s enough to fund affordable housing for every unhoused person and household facing eviction in
this country for several years — with about enough left over to
make sure uninsured people with opioid use disorder can get treatment.
Nor are these the only costs. Undocumented people
contributed $96.7 billion in federal, state, and
local taxes in 2022 — just one tax year, according to the Institute on Taxation
and Economic Policy. That’s nearly $100 billion in lost revenue a year that
everyone else would end up having to cover.
But these attacks aren’t going unopposed. People are showing up for their immigrant neighbors and loved ones, making clear they simply won’t accept the nightmare of mass deportations and detentions.
The groups United We Dream, CASA, Make the Road States, and
Action Lab recently pledged to build “a strong and
sustainable movement to defend ourselves and our neighbors.” With their #CommunitiesNotCages campaign, Detention
Watch Network is working with local communities to protest ICE actions and shut
down detention centers.
And the list goes on.
On February 1, thousands of people blocked a highway in Los Angeles to
protest against ICE raids. Just two days later, many gathered in solidarity for
a Day Without Immigrants. On this day,
students stayed home from school, employees didn’t show up to work, and over
250 businesses closed nationwide to show how important immigrants are to
everyone’s day-to-day lives.
Others are using lawsuits to fight back. Five pregnant
women, with the help of immigrant rights groups, sued the Trump administration’s attempt to end
birthright citizenship. Agreeing with the mothers, three federal judges just blocked this unconstitutional order.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union and other
major legal organizations sued the administration for seeking to shut down
asylum at the border — on the grounds that it’s a violation of
long-time international and domestic law.
Finally, my fellow immigrants and I are also standing our
ground. We’re stating the facts: Immigration is good for our country,
our economy, and our culture — something 68 percent of Americans agree with.
And we’re here to stay.
Immigrants are essential to this country. We bring
opportunity and possibility to the United States. And not only do we contribute
as students and professionals, business owners, and essential workers — we’re
also human beings trying to live good and successful lives like anyone else.
We’re a part of the American story.
Now and more than ever, we’ll continue to show up for each
other — and we hope you will, too. Our lives and families depend on it.
Alliyah Lusuegro is the Outreach
Coordinator for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy
Studies. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.
