Mass Deportations Will Undermine Our Safety

The American Immigration Council does not endorse or oppose candidates for elected office. We aim to provide analysis regarding the implications of the election on the U.S. immigration system.

When the Trump administration deported Goura Ndiaye, he had lived in the United States for 20 years, running his own business as an electrician, working as primary breadwinner for his three U.S. citizen daughters, and serving as an active member of his church in Ohio. For 10 years, Goura regularly checked in with immigration authorities as required, never once facing arrest for an offense in the criminal legal system. Nevertheless, in 2017, he faced sudden deportation to Mauritania—a Northwest African country where he faced a likelihood of death.

President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plan will target thousands of others like Goura who richly contribute to their families, communities, and our local economies often for decades. While Trump and his advisors claim they will start with “criminal immigrants,” their plans will include millions of people who pose no public safety risk at all—just as we saw during his first administration.

That’s because over 90% of the approximately 13 million undocumented people living in this country have no criminal record. Studies show that rates of convictions are significantly lower for undocumented immigrants than for those born in the U.S. And, of the undocumented immigrants who do have criminal records, most have offenses related to traffic or civil immigration violations, according to the government’s own data.

In other words, an overwhelming majority of the millions of undocumented people living here in the U.S.—whether they have criminal records or not—pose no threat to our public safety. So, when Trump and his advisors threaten deporting millions of people, we can be assured that people like Goura will be a priority and target.

Nevertheless, Trump and his advisors continue to sell mass deportation to the American people by preying upon fears of crime. Everyone wants to be safe and when we constantly hear about the same violent crimes committed by immigrants, we are distracted from the facts and data which underscore that these are the exception. But manipulating individual examples of crimes to make inaccurate generalizations is an old political trick that leads to policy failure.

In the 1988 presidential election, one candidate ran a political ad dramatically featuring violent crimes committed by a Black man named Willie Horton to garner support for tough-on-crime policies and the War on Drugs. The ad used his unlawful behavior to stoke public fear and build on racist stereotypes, ultimately convincing Americans that spending billions of dollars to target Black men for non-violent drug offenses and grow the criminal incarceration system was necessary for safety. Many of the politicians who supported this agenda would later admit its policy failures which led to wasted resources, racist outcomes, the largest system of mass incarceration in the developed world, and little to show for increased safety.

President-elect Trump is working to create a similar illusion, claiming that deportations lead to safety when the reality will be a drain on taxpayer dollars, seismic impacts on the U.S. economy, and resources diverted away from developing solutions for a fairer immigration system that ensures the well-being of people seeking safety, families, and our economy.

The tools his administration plans to use to carry out “mass deportation” are actually proven to undermine public safety. When local police are asked to do the work of federal immigration authorities by turning basic traffic stops into immigration arrests, immigrants stop trusting local police officers and do not report crimes. This chilling effect leaves many in our communities, including survivors of domestic violence, more vulnerable to crime.

A robust body of research also emphasizes that immigration is correlated to decreases in violent and property crimes. The social capital and deep social networks many immigrant communities bring with them increase social cohesion, a key driver of less crime.

Trump’s marketing on mass deportation also ignores that the U.S. immigration system is already disproportionately harsh in its treatment of any immigrant with a criminal record. For example, a person with an “aggravated felony” – a term that does not necessarily include crimes that are “aggravated” or “felonies” – cannot access most forms of immigration relief and receives almost no due process as they face an inevitable deportation and permanent exile. While this legal term-of-art implies to an everyday person that an immigrant committed a serious or violent crime, an “aggravated felony” includes offenses as minor as shoplifting or writing a bad check.

The U.S. system is also one of the few in the world that deports people with lawful permanent residency based on non-violent crimes committed decades prior. This stands in stark contrast to the criminal legal system where basic statutes of limitation prohibit prosecutors from bringing a case against someone for a drug offense if more than five to seven years have passed. But in the immigration system, a person can be deported for a non-violent offense they committed 30 years ago and even if they’ve already paid their debt to society.

That’s how U.S. veteran Howard Bailey, who served in Desert Storm, found himself deported. After his service in the Navy, Howard purchased his home with a V.A. loan, ran his own trucking company, and raised two U.S. citizen children as a proud Virginian. But when he took steps to become a U.S. citizen, he unexpectedly faced deportation for a marijuana offense from 10 years prior—the only offense on his record and one the governor of Virginia pardoned.

Howard spent 10 years fighting for a chance to come home and when he returned, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle celebrated alongside immigration officers tasked with carrying out deportations. Common sense dictated that deporting people like Howard or Goura is unjust, a waste of scarce resources, and does nothing to make us safer.

Their stories and the facts and data serve as a reality check as we prepare for President-elect Trump’s mass deportation agenda. There are far more sensible ways to enforce immigration law that both meet our collective needs to be safe in our communities while also ensuring that members of our communities aren’t unjustly targeted. We can and must do better.

FILED UNDER: Deportation, Donald Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement