President Donald Trump's pledge to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history will separate families and harm the economy, witnesses testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday, with Republicans on the committee The official warned that illegal immigrants living in the country “should be prepared to leave.” ”.
The president-elect has declared a national emergency and announced an aggressive second immigration policy, including plans to deploy the U.S. military to round up and deport millions of people living in the country without documentation. An overview was presented. President Trump also vowed to eliminate humanitarian protections for millions of people fleeing violence, conflict and other disasters in their home countries.
The hearing, convened by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, aims to examine the economic and human toll of the massive deportation operation. But the meeting also revealed ideological tensions that have hampered legislative attempts at immigration reform for decades.
“If you are in the country illegally, get ready to leave. If you are a criminal, we will come after you,” said Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. If Republicans win a Senate majority next year, Graham promised that Republicans would introduce a “transformative border security bill” that would expand detention capacity, increase the number of immigration agents and “complete the wall.”
Many of President Trump's most controversial immigration policies, including family separation, proved highly unpopular during the president's first term. But a surge in global migration following the pandemic led to a surge in asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border in the early days of the Biden administration. Americans strongly disagree with Biden's handling of the issue, making immigration a top issue in the election.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, declared in a hearing that the November election is “a referendum on federal border policy for the Biden-Harris administration.” .
Democratic senators touted common ground between the two parties and reiterated their support for expelling immigrants with criminal records and the need for more controls at the border. And they highlighted broad support for protecting Dreamers, people brought to this country as children.
“Instead of mass deportations, [let’s have] It’s about public accountability,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee’s Democratic chairman. “Let’s fix our broken immigration system in a way that protects our country and honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants.”
Democrats relied on witnesses such as immigration experts, retired Army major generals, and illegal prosecutors to argue that mass deportations would do far more harm than good.
“The President-elect's mass deportation plan would deport nearly 4% of the U.S. population, destroying the U.S. economy, destroying families, and hammering the foundations of our society.” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior researcher in partisan organizations. The American Immigration Council testified to the committee.
An analysis by his group estimates that implementing President Trump's mass deportation plan and reducing annual GDP by 4.2% to 6.8% would cost nearly $1 trillion, more than the 2008 economy. This is equivalent to a regression. Reichlin-Melnik said that on the financial side, it would worsen inflation and cause food prices to rise.
“A single on-site raid at a beef plant in Tennessee in 2018 under the Trump administration resulted in ground beef prices increasing by 25 cents in the year that the plant was out of commission,” he said. I did,” he said.
Randy Manner, a retired U.S. Army major general and anti-Trump Republican, warns against using the U.S. military to support politically critical domestic missions, undermining military readiness and targeting the government. He warned that it could undermine public trust.
“The U.S. military is the best trained in the world for combat missions, but it is not trained or equipped for immigration enforcement,” he said.
Among the witnesses invited to testify was Foday Turay, an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia. He fled Sierra Leone as a child and testified that he didn't know he was in the country illegally until he went to apply for a driver's license. He is protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
As a father, husband, immigrant and prosecutor, Turai said the threat of mass deportation “will have an impact on an individual level, a community level, a societal level.”
“If I get deported, my wife and son won't have money to pay the mortgage. My son won't have a father either,” he said. He also warned that widespread deployment of immigration officers could reduce law enforcement's ability to track down criminals.
“As a prosecutor, I know how delicate the relationship between law enforcement and immigrants can be when immigrants, like myself, are afraid to cooperate with police and prosecutors for fear of deportation. ” he added. “Mass deportation hurts all of us: our families, our communities, and our societies.”
Republicans have invited Patti Morin, the mother of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who was assaulted, raped and killed during a hiking trip in August 2023. Officials said the suspect in her death was in the United States illegally after killing a woman in her native El Salvador. President Trump, with support from the Morin family, cited the murders as part of his appeal for stronger border controls.
“Americans should not be afraid to live in their homes,” Patti Morin told the committee. “We have to follow the laws that are already in place, we have to close our borders. We have to protect American families.”
Seeking unity, Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont seeks legal redress for people who have lived and worked in the U.S. without criminal records, while targeting deportations for illegal aliens with criminal records. I asked Morin if he supported the policy.
“Are you saying it's okay to come to America illegally?” Morin replied. “There has to be some kind of boundary or precedent as to what is legal and what is illegal.”
Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who has been a vocal critic of President Trump's immigration proposals, accused his Republican colleagues of distorting data and conflating fentanyl deaths with immigrants. Citing federal statistics, he said the vast majority (more than 80%) of those charged with domestic drug trafficking were U.S. citizens.
“If that's a concern, let's address the core of the concern instead of just using it as a muzzle to further attack immigrants,” he said.
Ahead of the hearing, Padilla sent a letter to Biden calling for expanded humanitarian protections for certain groups and faster processing of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applicants, which prevents deportation of undocumented immigrants. He was one of a group that sent a letter asking them to do so. He was brought to the United States as a child.
“We urge you to take decisive action between now and the next president's inauguration to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families,” the letter reads.
Earlier this week, the White House released a memo outlining Biden's priorities for the final days of his term, but it did not include any mention of immigration-related action.
