Trump claims there are 15-20 million undocumented immigrants living in the US. According to the Census Bureau, there are 11 million. The point, though, is that every one of them reportedly fears Trump’s plan for mass deportation as if it were Judgment Day. But this plan reeks of sound and fury, signifying that the only thing most immigrants have to fear is fear itself.
Frankly, Trump’s rhetoric about mass deportation this election cycle reeks of his bluster about building that border wall in 2016. He ended up building only 52 miles of new wall along the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border — a paltry 2.6%. More importantly, mass deportation would ensnare millions of undocumented farm and ranch workers.
That would be an even bigger case of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face than Muslims voting to elect Trump. Migrant workers are indispensable to the sustainable growth of the US economy. Not to mention the role their labor plays in controlling the inflation malaise that doomed Kamala’s campaign.
Trump’s billionaire donors know this all too well. They won’t let his racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric sabotage their business interests. So, expect a flashy show of rounding up 1 or 2 million immigrants who already have deportation notices or are serving time in prison. For a little perspective, deporter-in-chief Obama deported 2.5 million illegal immigrants. He just never made a PT Barnum spectacle of doing so.
Still, deporting that small fraction of undocumented immigrants — much like that pitiful fraction of his border wall — will let Trump declare with MAGA pride, “Promise made, promise kept.”
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