Donald TrumpHe vowed to carry out the largest deportation in American history that would separate families and hurt the economy, witnesses testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday, as a top Republican in the House warned that undocumented people living in the country should be “prepared to leave.”
The president designated an aggressive second term No one an agenda that includes plans to declare a national emergency and deploy the US military to round up and deport millions of people living in the country without documents. Trump has also promised to end humanitarian protections for millions of people who have fled violence, conflict or other disasters in their country.
Heard, summoned Democrats The Senate Judiciary Committee set out to investigate the economic and human toll of mass deportation. But the session also revealed the ideological tensions that have stymied decades of legislative efforts at immigration reform.
“If you’re here illegally, get ready to leave. If you’re a criminal, we’re going to come after you,” said Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. when Republicans to take over the Senate majority next year, Graham promised his party that he would pass a “transformational border security” bill that would increase capacity at detention centers, boost the number of immigration officers and “complete the wall.”
Many found Trump’s tough immigration policies, including family separations, deeply unpopular in his first term in office. But the post-pandemic rise in global asylum migration has led to the . US-Mexico border in the early years of the Biden administration. Americans have vehemently disapproved of Biden’s handling of the issue, and have taken immigration as the top choice.
In November, the elections “will be about the administration of the federal government in the limits of Biden-Harris”, Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and a ranking member of the subcommittee on the Judiciary, declared in the hearing.
Democratic senators insisted there was common ground between the parties — repeatedly declaring their support for removing immigrants with criminal records and the need for better border control. And they confirmed the broad support to preserve the dream, the people brought to the country as children.
“For mass deportations; [let’s have] to pay back the masses,” said Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the committee. “Let’s fix our broken immigration system in a way that protects our country and honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants.”
Democrats turned to their own witnesses — immigration experts, a retired Army major general and an undocumented prosecutor — to make the case that mass deportations would do far more harm than good.
“The president-elect’s mass deportation plans would crash into the American economy, break up families and take a hammer to the foundations of our society by deporting nearly 4% of the entire US population,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, testified at the meeting.
An analysis by his group estimates that it would cost nearly $1tn to implement Trump’s mass deportation plan and cut annual GDP between 4.2% and 6.8% – a level on par with the 2008 recession. Asked how Trump’s plans would hit Americans financially, Reichlin-Melnick said they would exacerbate inflation and causing food prices to rise.
“One worksite landing in 2018 under” Trump administration at a beef plant in Tennessee led to ground beef prices going up 25 cents a year because the plant was out of operation,” he said.
Randy Manner, a retired US Army major general and anti-Trump Republican, is wary of helping US forces with a decisive political mission at home as he warned it would undermine military readiness and erode public confidence in the institution.
“The US military is the best in the world trained for its war mission, but it is not trained to enforce immigration,” he said.
Among the witnesses called to testify was Foday Turay, an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, who fled Sierra Leone as a child and testified that he did not know he was undocumented until he went to apply for a driver’s license. He is protected from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
As a father, husband, immigrant and prosecutor, Turay said the threat of deportation affects him “on a personal level, on a community level and on a social level.”
If I wanted to be deported, my wife and our son would have to pay off the mortgage without money. My son would also be without his father,” he said. He also warned that the broad deployment of immigration agents could chill law enforcement’s ability to pursue criminals.
“As a prosecutor, I know how delicate the relationship between law enforcement and immigrants can be if immigrants are afraid to cooperate with the police or prosecutors like myself because they fear deportation,” he added. “Mass deportation hurts all of us, our families, our community and our society.”
Republicans invited Patty Morin, the mother of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who was beaten, kidnapped and killed on a hiking trip in August 2023. Officials say the suspect in his death became a law in our country after he killed a woman in his home country of El Salvador. Trump, in agreement with Morin’s family, cited the killing as part of his appeal for a stricter term.
“Americans should not be afraid to live in their own homes,” said Councilwoman Patty Morin. “We need to follow the rights that are already on the books, we need to close our borders. We need protection for American families.”
Seeking common ground, Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont asked Morin if he would support the deportation plan, which would include undocumented people in the infamous record following a legal remedy for those who have lived and worked in the U.S. without a record.
“Are we saying it’s ok to come to America illegally?” Morin replied. “There must be a certain line, an example, of what is allowed and what is not allowed.”
Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, who has been a fierce critic of Trump’s immigration proposals, accused his Republican colleagues of distorting the data and conflating immigration deaths. Citing federal statistics, he said the vast majority – more than 80% – of people who trafficked drugs into the country were US citizens.
“If that’s a concern, let’s address the heart of the concern and not use a sound bite to further attack immigrants,” he said.
Before the hearing, Padilla was among a group of Democratic senators who sent a letter to President Biden urging him to extend humanitarian protections to certain groups and to expedite the process of recruiting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which targets the deportation of undocumented children in the US.
“We encourage you to take firm action between now and the inauguration of the president-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect the families of the residents,” the letter said.
Earlier this week, the White House released a memo retaining Biden’s last day in office that made no reference to immigration-related actions.