Documented

To the editor:

It must have angered some MAGA voters to hear J. D. Vance say, “how do you deport 18 million people? Let's start with 1 million,” especially since Donald Trump has repeatedly said he intends to deport every undocumented immigrant.  

I think I know why the Trump-Vance deportation goal has dropped so dramatically: businesses, like Trump’s golf courses, couldn’t survive without immigrants. But the impacts would extend far beyond Trump National as economists estimated in 2016 that deporting just 7 million would shrink GDP by 1.4 percent in year one, 2.6 percent over each of the next few years and ultimately by 6 percent annually or $1.6 trillion. 

Why? The numbers speak for themselves. The undocumented make up half of all farm workers, one-quarter of meat, fish and poultry processing workers and over 10 percent of construction workers. One in three roofers lack legal status.  

Over a half million health care, childcare and hospitality housekeeping workers are undocumented. They pay $13 billion per year into Social Security, for which they are ineligible by law. During the height of the pandemic, the undocumented comprised 75 percent of the essential, in-person workforce. And, about 3.5 million undocumented immigrants have U.S.-born minor children because, despite the rhetoric of a Biden-Harris invasion, about 75 percent of undocumented immigrants entered the country over 15 years ago.

The food you eat, the cleanliness of your hotel room, repairs to your home and nursing care for a loved one all depend upon immigrant labor. Rather than deportations, we should focus on expanding legal paths to citizenship. Our collective economic future depends upon it.

Joseph Cannisi