Immigration groups gear up for a second Trump administration • Ohio Capital Journal

WASHINGTON — Immigration advocates and civil rights groups are preparing to adopt President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises to crack down on immigration, from reviving controversial policies from his first term to enacting mass deportations.

Trump has pledged to end parole programs that have allowed immigrants to work and live legally in the country immediately upon taking office again. These humanitarian parole programs will begin in 2021 there were more than 1 million immigrants with temporary protection.

What will likely immediately follow is the reimplementation of his previous immigration policies, such as a ban on allowing people from predominantly Muslim countries into the United States and reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy that requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while they are waiting for their case.

Immigration groups are preparing for this policy and those that will be pursued leading up to Inauguration Day.

Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, outlined a sobering reality.

“We recognize that many feel terrified about what the next four years will bring,” she said in a statement. “While we cannot prevent all harm from happening, we say to everyone who faces harm: we are here to do everything we can to support and protect each other.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which led the way in challenging some of Trump’s toughest immigration policies during his first term, said on social media that it is prepared for legal challenges starting on Trump’s first day in office.

Greisa Martínez Rosas, executive director of the largest immigrant youth organization, United We Dream, said in a statement that with Trump promising to plan mass deportations, they are “clear-eyed for the struggle ahead.”

“We will use our power and grow it to new heights, building the largest pro-immigrant movement this country has ever seen, to fight back against white nationalism, and to create a vision for the future that honors our values ​​of a pluralistic democracy, where everyone can live and prosper without fear,” said Martínez Rosas.

Deportations

Some immediate deportations may involve those already in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. that was 37,395 as of September.

It could also include an expansion of expedited removals, meaning that if a person without permanent legal status remains in the country for two years without a hearing or any form of consent, he or she could be deported without a hearing by a judge.

That type of removal is limited to 100 miles from a border. However, during the first Trump administration, that zone was expanded to the rest of the country. A second Trump administration could do that again.

The Migration Policy Institute, an immigration think tank, has estimated that “the expansion of expedited removal to the domestic U.S. could apply to as many as 288,000 people.”

Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from 2017 to 2018, recently told CBS News that mass deportation would be targeted.

“It’s not going to be a massive cleanup of neighborhoods,” he said. ‘These will be targeted arrests. We’ll know who we’re going to arrest and where we’re most likely to find them based on numerous, you know, investigative processes.

Financing

It is also about the costs of mass deportations.

Trump’s main campaign promise to implement mass deportations would be a costly undertaking that would require congressional approval — something that could be easier if the new president gains control of both chambers.

According to a conservative estimate, the American Immigration Council found that it would cost $968 billion to remove the country’s approximately 13 million immigrants without authorization over the next decade.

According to the analysis, it would cost the government $89.3 billion in arrests, $167.8 billion to detain huge numbers of people, $34 billion in legal processing and $24 billion in removals.

That funding would have to be appropriated through Congress.

As of Thursday morning, it was unclear whether Trump would face a divided Congress or unified Republican control. Republicans have flipped the Senate, and while there are still too many House races remaining to project control of the Chamber, the GOP was slowly moving toward a slim majority.

Economic impact

Economic experts have warned of the consequences of removing millions of employees.

Jeremy Robbins, the executive director of the American Immigration Council, sought to break the economic impact of mass deportations.

“Should a president choose to pursue mass deportation, it would impose extraordinary costs on the government while devastating the economy,” Robbins said in a statement Wednesday.

“It is critical that policymakers and the American public understand what this would entail: tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, already stressed industries destroyed, millions of people locked up in detention, and thousands of families torn apart, causing widespread terror and chaos in the world.” communities across the country.”

Households headed by undocumented immigrants paid a total of $75.6 billion in taxes in 2022, according to the American Immigration Council. It is estimated that illegal immigrants make up approximately 4.8% of the U.S. workforce. according to the Pew Research Center.

Last updated at 2:19 PM, November 7, 2024