Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™.
The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies requiring the deportation of 3,000 immigrants a day will have a disastrous effect on the economy, as several industries, such as agriculture, hospitality, restaurants and meat-packing, heavily depend on immigrant labor.
Immigrants are a vital part of our workforce, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) targeting of undocumented immigrants, or those who commit violent crimes, has shown to be misleading since they’re detaining and deporting hard-working people who boost our economy.
President Donald Trump, in a surprise reversal, ordered ICE to pause raids and arrests in those industries, according to the New York Times.
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The administration’s immigration policies aren’t based on finding criminals or people who cause harm to others; the point of these raids is to evoke fear in some of the most vulnerable people in the country, who already live a life having to look over their shoulders.
ICE has separated children from their families, placed sick people in detention centers and has taken young people, with no contact with their families or legal representation.
Immigrants don’t steal jobs; much of their work is necessary to keep the economy going. But removing immigrants from the workforce, when they pay taxes and contribute to the economy, is a big mistake.
Undocumented immigrant households paid close to $90 billion in federal, state, and local taxes and held nearly $300 billion in spending power in 2023, according to data from the American Immigration Council.
Mass deportations would deepen the housing crisis, lower wages, and reduce jobs for other workers. Fewer consumers in this country means a lower demand for goods, which in turn would lead to a reduction in the workforce.
Just as this current administration lacks an understanding of how tariffs work and who pays the price (us), empathy and understanding are absent from these immigration policies. As a country, we have moved further to the right, accepting the rise of racism, homophobia, and xenophobia.
Even the discussions about the recent ICE protests—where Trump has ordered more ICE agents to sanctuary cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles— have taken over social media and have shown that there are people content with doing nothing and not advocating for people who make up part of the working class.
The Trump administration isn’t only targeting migrants who do manual labor. Throughout the past couple of months, Trump has gone to war with higher education institutions such as Columbia University and Harvard University, by threatening to revoke visas of immigrant students, as well as funding for the school, according to NPR.
The administration has also issued a travel ban from mostly Black, Arab, and Latin American countries; this also affects scientists and tech workers who require visas to perform their jobs in the U.S., according to Boundless.
Immigrants are part of the fabric of American society, no matter how much conservatives try to pretend that they aren’t. America’s history began with people traveling to the original colonies in search of religious freedom and a better life. The immigrants in this country deserve the same courtesy and respect.
