Mass deportations of Donald Trump: the hard blow that the United States economy would suffer

The mass deportations promised by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, could increase inflation and the deficit, in addition to generating a reduction in income and the workforce that would ultimately cause a drop in gross domestic product (GDP)experts and academics said this Wednesday.

During a teleconference organized by the organization America’s Voice, Robert Lynch, professor of economics at Washington College, said that the idea that mass deportations will help Americans “is an illusion.”

Studies of past episodes of mass deportations in the United States showed that they caused the national economy to contract, Lynch said. “Jobs for American workers went down, American wages went down and prices went up,” he added.

Also read: Trump’s mass deportation: the key factor to accelerate the plan against undocumented migrants

The executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, Stuart Anderson, stated, for his part, that A recent study by this organization found that without immigrants and their children there would have been no labor force growth in the U.S. economy over the past five years..

“The economic impact of a reduction in immigration could be significant, particularly in the medium and long term,” he warned.

During the teleconference it was highlighted that the states that tend to concentrate the largest number of undocumented immigrants, such as Texas, California, New York and Florida, will have the most significant economic impacts, although they will not be the only ones.

Among the industries that could be most affected are manufacturing, agriculture and construction, although sectors such as hospitality and child and elderly care could also be impacted by the lack of labor.

The participants of the call highlighted that historically the economic growth of the United States has been linked to the increase in the labor force, and therefore they warned that eliminating an “important source of job growth”, such as undocumented workers, could slow down the overall growth rate.

Also read: State of emergency and Army: this will be Donald Trump’s mass deportation of migrants

Phillip Connor, senior researcher at the FWD.us organization, said: The president-elect’s plans could impact more than 28 million people from undocumented or mixed-status families, including more than 20 million Latinos (approximately one in three Latinos in the United States).

“We must be clear: President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plans are, in reality, massive family separation plans,” he said.

Getty Images

For her part, Angela Kelley, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), warned that “the tectonic plates of immigration laws and policies are about to change dramatically” due to the foreseeable mass deportations. .

“There is no firewall that protects Americans from feeling the sting of the loss of labor and workers’ contributions to our economy,” he said.

Also read: Cryptocurrency sector awaits its golden age with Trump’s return to the White House: why?

This same week, Donald Trump confirmed the plan to declare a national emergency as a result of the crisis on the border with Mexico, in order to have military personnel available to carry out his announced deportations.

Local governments, the key

The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has promised “mass deportations” of undocumented migrants living in the country. The Republican has indicated that, once in power, he will use federal power – including an 18th century law – to detain and deport those who are in the country.

However, to carry out an operation at the level of what he has envisioned (going after the more than 11 million undocumented people) he will need to rely on local and state governments and police departments.

The attitude of the different regions towards migration, therefore, will be key to slowing down or accelerating their plans, according to experts and activists consulted by EFE.

Organizations in favor of migrant rights in different states of the country are already preparing to face – and resist – a second Republican presidency.