Joint Economic Committee Democrats Chairman - Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Though the U.S. immigration system remains broken, immigrants are crucial to growing the labor force and supporting economic output. Immigrants have helped expand the labor supply, pay nearly $580 billion a year in taxes, possess a spending power of $1.6 trillion a year, and just last year contributed close to $50 billion each in personal income and consumer spending. Congress must reform and modernize the immigration system while also cementing the immense economic benefits associated with immigration. Time and time again, Democrats have attempted to do so through comprehensive immigration reform but have been blocked by Republicans who continue to use the issue to sow division.
The incoming Trump administration plans to conduct mass deportations that would upend entire communities and have severe economic fallout. Mass deportations would reduce economic growth, shrink the labor force, cost U.S.-born workers their jobs, raise costs for nearly all Americans, and risk igniting inflation.
On top of the billions of dollars it would cost to undertake the sweeping deportation efforts that President Trump has called for across the country, multiple analyses show that any mass deportation plan would cause massive declines in GDP and overall employment.
