Donald Trump has declared the deportation of illegal immigrants his absolute priority in his second term. On his first day as US president, he will launch the largest deportation campaign in the country's history, Trump repeated at every election event. "We will expel them, they are destroying our country", he said, ARD recalls.
Cabinet with ultra-right hardliners
The mass deportations will start with illegal immigrants, but will not be limited to them, the German publication continues. Trump is already attracting far-right hardliners to his government team to take on this task. First of all: his confidant Stephen Miller, who is already ready with his concept of mass deportations, as the American media writes.
He is considered the architect of Trump's anti-immigration policy during his first presidential term, including the sharply criticized ban on citizens of a number of Muslim countries from being allowed into the United States, as well as the practice of separating children from their parents after crossing the border. Now we will see Miller in the role of deputy head of policy in the White House administration, ARD points out.
Tom Homan becomes "border czar"
On Miller's side is Tom Homan, whom Trump described as the new "border czar". At the Republican Party convention in July, Homan's message to the millions of "illegal" It was said that it was better to pack up now, and when asked by CBS whether mass deportations were possible without breaking up families, Homan replied a few weeks ago: "Of course, you can deport entire families."
It is not clear how many illegal immigrants live in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2022 they were 11 million, and in the meantime their number has probably increased significantly. But they are not the only ones wondering what Donald Trump can really do.
Alexandra Philindra from the University of Chicago believes that under the new president, things could start happening very quickly. For example, Trump could revoke the protected status of certain groups of immigrants with presidential decrees, says the migration expert quoted by ARD. In particular, she fears for the fate of the so-called "dreamers" - migrants who came to the US illegally as children, usually with their parents. Until now, they could not be deported. Some of Philindra's students came to the US this way. Now she fears that their dreams will be shattered in the worst possible way, the German publication also writes.
Deportations will be expensive
Whatever deportations the Trump team undertakes, it will certainly cost a lot of money. The American Immigration Council - an organization specializing in immigration law - estimates that deporting one million people a year would cost more than $88 billion.
This would require the construction of appropriate deportation facilities and the appointment of thousands more people in border authorities and courts. Again, the American Migration Council estimates that border services alone will need to hire an additional 30,000 employees to handle one million deportations a year.
Trump: Costs are irrelevant
In an interview with NBC News last week, Trump said that he would carry out the promised mass deportations no matter what the cost. To finance the undertaking, Trump will have to reallocate funds from other government programs, Philindra assures. But even that will not be enough.
According to her, the scope of the deportation program will depend primarily on what funds will be allocated for it. Congress will have to authorize these costs, or at least part of them. "Then we'll see how much money they're actually willing to spend," the professor said.
Economists warn of the consequences of deporting millions of migrants for the US economy. It is estimated that about five percent of workers in the US are undocumented. These are usually people who perform unattractive work, that is, work in areas that Americans do not want, the ARD publication also says.
According to the American Migration Council, mass deportations could cost the country more than $1 trillion of its gross domestic product. "Mass deportations will exacerbate the ongoing labor shortage in the US, especially in industries that rely heavily on illegal immigrants," the organization's expert Nan Wu told CNBC. According to Wu, 14% of construction workers in the US are in the country illegally, as are a quarter of those employed in agriculture.
Author: Nina Barth ARD