The head of an organization advocating for migrant rights in Texas is calling them to seek legal aid before Donald Trump takes office next January, considering his repeated promises of conducting the "largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history."
"The most important thing for everyone to be doing right now is to be getting legal advice as soon as possible so they can find out where they stand," said Melissa Lopez, executive director of Estrella del Paso, an El Paso-based organization.
Her message is largely aimed at migrants who have been in the country for a considerable amount of time, worked and potentially have children born in the U.S.
Far from leaving it as campaign rhetoric, Republicans across the board have been anticipating that immigration enforcement will be among the upcoming administration's first priorities.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said after the electoral victory that Trump will "restore his effective immigration policies, implement brand new crackdowns that will send shockwaves to all the world's criminal smugglers, and marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history."
Moreover, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller elaborated on the president-elect's initial plans on immigration during an interview on NBC's "Today" show. Miller started out by saying that Trump's first order of business after he takes office will be executive actions to "get back to drilling" and reinstate Trump-era border policies.
"All of the secure border policies that we had in place with President Trump, he can simply flip the switch and put those back in place just like they were before. They didn't need an act of Congress," he said.
Miller echoed these thoughts during another appearance on "Good Morning America" by saying that "the previous administration didn't need any acts of Congress to go and break the border, and so all we have to do with regard to the border is put his policies back in place."
Lopez said she doubts the federal government will be able to destine the resources necessary to carry out such an operation, as different studies determined the figure would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars.
A new analysis by CBS News, however, digs deep into the numbers, estimating that deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants (based on the 2022 American Community Survey) would cost the U.S. between $160 billion and $216 billion over a four-year presidency.
In fact, even if Congress were to approve such a number, deporting every undocumented immigrant living in the U.S. would take far longer than four years, the analysis finds.
The study revealed that apprehending and deporting just one million individuals would cost about $20 billion as immigration enforcement funding would need to increase significantly, requiring approval from Congress.
Lopez also highlighted the negative economic impact of an increased immigration crackdown, saying: "For a number of people the economy was one of the driving forces for voting the way that they did. What they don't understand is that mass deportations would have a negative impact on the economy."
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