There’s fear in the air for the local communities post President Trump’s new call for mass deportation in hopes of decreasing crime; many students know someone in their lives whether it’s a relative, classmate or local business owner who is undocumented. California is one of six states — Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois — with the largest undocumented immigrant populations and heavily relied on for the economy, so the following questions are on the logistics of it all?
When and how are the two biggest questions facing Americans right now. The first question was answered late Janaury, with a rapid increase of ICE raids in Southern California after Trump’s inauguration.
This can be accounted for by the fact that California is a designated sanctuary state. This territory comes with unintended consequences and political backlash — back in 2018 when Trump was president, he also threatened federal budget cuts for the state.
“California went to court during Trump’s first term to beat back his intent to withhold a few federal grants from the state for its failure to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. In 2018, a federal judge ruled in the California’s favor, saying the president’s move was unconstitutional.“, reported by CalMatters.
California, like many states heavily rely on Undocumented workers for cheap physical labor, as they comprise over 15% of the workforce in June 2024, contribute $6 billion tax dollars and $12 billion into social security despite having no legal rights to the benefits.
There are over 32 million undocumented immigrants in America. It’s clear there would be a significant GDP decrease — conservative estimates of 2.3% with higher ranges of 4.2 to 6.8% — projected trillions of dollars lost especially hitting sectors like manifacturing, food production, and construction according to numerous reports.
Trump’s passed legislative action to allow the arresting of migrants at schools, churches and hospitals. It’s estimated around 20% of undocumented immigrants will leave prior to arrests.
It was estimated deporting all undocumented immigrants would cost the U.S. government at least $315 billion, and a “longer operation would average out to $88 billion annually, for a total cost of $967.9 billion over the course of more than a decade.”, stated in a special report about Mass Deporation, published October 2, 2024, by the American Immigration Council.
So what’s next? Can voters expect an increase in State or Federal taxes?
Trump is yet to directly state how he plans to fund this large-scale project during his presidency, but it is to be expected to go hand-in-hand with heavy federal budget cuts.
There must be at least a projected $318 billion to weigh in the longer estimates of $88 billions while offsetting the major “$230 billion” budget cuts to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, officials reported to NBC news.
These figures initially led numerous into predicting a delay in the project or not being as wide scaled as advertised to voters. This can also mean the deficits of other sectors; previously during Trump’s last presidency he funneled money from hurricane/natural disaster funds agency (FEMA) to provide more security at the border.
We can expect significant defunding of FEMA, federal board of education, public schools, science, climate change, and healthcare. Where we can see multiple schools shut down in Texas and federal aid freezes for scholarships or debt relief.
There are many unexpected economic and political consequences of Trump’s project of mass deportation for those in public schools, affected by natural disasters, job productivity in sectors such as argicultural and construction.
Written by Desiree Delgadillo, News Editor