New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte says she will support President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, but that support could come with significant costs.
Jeremy Robbins – executive director of the American Immigration Council – pointed to new data showing that deporting people who work in critical industries such as construction, education, food production, and health care would reduce the nation’s Gross Domestic Product by nearly 7% – which is on par with losses during the Great Recession.
“The costs of mass deportation would be tremendous,” said Robbins, “not just because it’s so expensive to deport people, but because it would wreak havoc on the economy.”
The cost of deportations is expected to be well over $100 billion, and Trump’s transition team has vowed to slash federal funding for local governments that refuse to cooperate.
The New Hampshire Senate has passed legislation to prohibit municipalities from designating themselves as “sanctuary cities” for migrants and compel police to assist federal officials in pursuing them.
Some critics have called Trump’s recent vow to scrap restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at churches, hospitals, and schools an effort to instill widespread fear.
During a recent Ethnic Media Services briefing, Elizabeth Taufa – policy attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center – said it’s important to understand what mass deportations would look like at the community level.
“Kids that aren’t going to school because their parents are afraid of being deported,” said Taufa. “Shortages of health-care workers because people either move to places that are a little bit safer or they are removed from the country. It looks like fewer teachers, and we are already facing a teacher shortage.”
A strong majority of voters across party lines don’t want mass deportations, according to an October survey.
Instead, they want lawmakers to create a legal path to citizenship, a move the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates would reduce the federal deficit by nearly $1 trillion.
Publisher’s Notes: Mass deportations could spur economic losses on par with Great Recession was first published by Public News Service, and republished with permission. NH Latino News amplifies stories that center Hispanic, Latino voices to provide greater visibility the communities we serve.