Tri-state immigrant community braces as Trump says mass deportation will move forward
NEW YORK (PIX11) -- President-elect Donald Trump has reaffirmed one of his first priorities from the campaign: the mass deportation of non-citizens.
He told NBC News there is "no choice" and "it's not a question of a price tag."
Trump has yet to outline his deportation plan in detail, meaning his intentions could apply to the nearly 200,000 migrants who have come to New York in the last two years claiming asylum, or undocumented people who have been in the country for decades, including DACA recipients.
However, the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigrant advocacy group, said if Trump truly means to deport everyone, there are 13.3 million undocumented people in the United States.
The American Immigration Council said in a report published in October that deporting so many people would incur a one-time cost of $315 billion.
The report also said about 4.6% of the U.S. workforce would be gone, with particularly big impacts on construction, agriculture and hospitality. Plus people working without legal authorization pay tens of billions of dollars each year in taxes and funnel billions more into Social Security.
On a human level, fear is growing in immigrant-friendly cities like New York, where there was a rally Thursday night.
New York is a "sanctuary city," meaning the NYPD and other city agencies cannot by law cooperate with federal immigration officials. However, under the weight of a migrant crisis that has strained his administration, Mayor Eric Adams has lamented the lack of cooperation with the feds, especially when it comes to migrants who commit crimes.
Adams has been hesitant to criticize Trump's immigration rhetoric, and would not say if he discussed deportations with Trump when they spoke by phone after the election.
When pressed for specifics in the week about what would happen at the extensive network of migrant shelters, NYPD Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey said little would change for now.
"We provide security out there already and we're going to stay in the same posture," Maddrey said. "As things progress, I'm sure the mayor will give us directions and we'll address those things as needed."
Trump was at an event in New Jersey about a month before the election when he said local police would cooperate with a mass deportation. However, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are all "sanctuary states," meaning at a minimum immigration detainers are not honored.