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New American Immigration Council Report on Costs of Mass Deportation and Experts on AV Press Briefing Offer Specifics of Costs and Consequences of Trump/Vance Signature Promise; Access this release online here

Washington, DC — At last night’s vice presidential debate, JD Vance followed Donald Trump’s lead and refused to provide specifics following a direct question about the details and consequences of their signature issue: mass deportations.

Ahead of the debate, we had called for a question asking for the specific details of the Trump/Vance plan for the “bloody” and unsparing mass deportation of millions, including those with current legal status. Last night, the CBS moderators asked a version of that exact question, specifically seeking details from Vance about whether Trump and Vance would seek to separate American families by deporting the undocumented parents of millions of U.S. citizen children.

Like Trump did in both of the presidential debates, Vance refused to provide specifics last night, even after an attempted follow-up from the moderators. Instead, he deflected, first saying they would start by focusing on “criminal migrants” (which is precisely the Obama/Biden/Harris enforcement priorities Republicans rejected) then pivoting to a collection of anti-immigrant falsehoods attacking the Biden-Harris administration.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“There’s a reason JD Vance followed Donald Trump’s lead and refused to answer direct debate questions asking for more details about their proposed mass deportation vision: the specifics of their unsparing mass deportations are cruel, costly and chaotic. Trump and Vance cannot say whether mass deportation will include legal immigrants and citizens because the answer is ‘yes.’ When people learn details about who will be deported and how much it will cost our government, our economy and our souls, they rightfully reject the mass deportation catastrophe Trump, Vance and Project 2025 have promised.

Trump and his GOP acolytes are campaigning on a plan to maximize deportations. This includes many long-settled immigrants with current legal status, such as Haitians with TPS in Springfield and Dreamers with DACA throughout the nation, and even the spouses of U.S. citizens who are eligible for the new Keeping Families Together program. Their plan is to send the military to conduct door-to-door neighborhood raids in a mass roundup, tear kids from their parents, and put them in military detention camps. These are the details that Trump and Vance refuse to detail on the debate stage. America can’t afford their approach to tear apart communities and our economy.”

Additional Resources

• Relatedly, a new and must-read report from the American Immigration Council on the costs of mass deportation finds it would cause GDP to drop by 4.2-6.8%, which is more than the Great Recession, and that the annual cost to arrest, detain, process, and remove 1 million people would be $88 billion. The full report and findings are worth reading and available here.

• Yesterday, America’s Voice convened a press briefing on the economic, logistical, community, and family consequences of mass deportation, featuring a range of experts highlighting why the proposed unsparing mass deportations would be devastating for all of America. Watch the briefing here.

• Also read this excellent Boston Globe op-ed from leading expert Michael Ettlinger, “Trump’s plan to vaporize the economy” as one of many examples about the economic toll of mass deportation on America.

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