Would you ever spend $4675 on a flight? Probably not, even if it guaranteed feasting on caviar and sitting far from the wailing babies in a cozy first class seat.
$4675 is the current average cost to fly out each deportee on a military plane. For many supporters of 2025’s mass deportation scheme, flexing the country’s unwavering “commitment to national security” is totally worth this massive overreach. Deporting all the 13 million unauthorized immigrants would set our country back $315 billion that could have been spent on fairer wages for every worker in the US. Its expenses and intended human losses will reduce the country’s potential GDP of the next 10 years by approximately $4.7 trillion.
Proponents of deportation have several reasons for justifying this spending: the criminality of unauthorized entry, fear of economic instability and resource scarcity, and the sweeping, dehumanizing generalization of the undocumented as a fearsome, marauding juggernaut.
To individuals who staunchly believe these narratives, mass deportation evokes a justified sense of purging the country’s pernicious vermin. Taking out the trash. Eliminating safety hazards. It’s just another version of humanity’s typical political strategy of dehumanizing the target to morally justify a mass atrocity, as was routine during the Holocaust and various genocides.
Beyond loud anecdotes, the facts and data generally invalidate the “migrants are a marauding infestation here to harm us” narrative. Undocumented immigrants have been repeatedly found to have lower crime rates than US citizens, with little evidence to support decreased reporting. It’s likely that the unshakable criminal stereotype persists due to scare tactics spotlighting the few violent migrant criminals rendering this data inconceivable to too many folks, as such tactics construct resolute mental models facts can’t overpower.
➡️ Full article: Why Do So Many Americans Keep Believing Lies About Undocumented “Migrant Crime”?
Most anti-deportation arguments center on its economic consequences to the American people: particularly key industries losing a good chunk of its workers, leading to productivity and profit hits that shrink the capital available to create new jobs for all Americans. The consequential job losses and economic stagnation will be abhorred by citizens across the political spectrum.
While these arguments are valid and compelling, they’re rather depersonalized and don’t highlight deportation’s long-term social ruptures: deportation would also emotionally and economically devastate millions of associated legally authorized immigrants and US citizens, including intermarried white folks who might’ve learned how to dance for the sake of love. Approximately 4.7 million families consist of a mix of undocumented and documented individuals, including US citizens.
Current deportation efforts have been shattering several healthy, loving, harmless families by detaining innocent parents, partners, and siblings rather than just the murderers as widely believed. The mass humanitarian toll makes it worth morally questioning.
Some religious opponents even consider mass deportations morally un-Catholic, citing Biblical quotes, figures, and stories that convey similar sentiments as the contemporary welcoming of migrants, such as Jesus helping foreign strangers in need or the notion of God existing in each human being. On the other side, religious proponents assert that a country unable to care for its own working class isn’t morally obligated to extend a charitable hand to migrants who are unlikely to succeed and assimilate, deeming such charity as further enticing potential migrants towards the dangers of unauthorized entry.
These views have resulted in the looming potential for millions of indiviuals to lose their loved ones, hitting undocumented individuals with a tsunami of anxiety, fear, and a need to keep a low profile to avoid detection. That can go as far as not leaving the house since new deportation laws have expanded ICE’s reach, stewing on serious FOMO. That resonates deeply with me as a fellow constant sufferer of FOMO. Fortunately, I’m privileged enough to be an American-born, racially ambiguous, ethnically East Asian citizen who doesn’t have to worry about deportation for carrying too many drugs or attending a protest.
Even before this vitriolic political climate, the undocumented are already more likely to experience poor mental health as a result of social discrimination and the everyday challenges of lacking legal documentation. Becoming legally authorized, a grueling process that can drag out for several years many of them couldn’t afford to wait for due to urgently pressing reasons to migrate, was never an easy remedy. Many common reasons to migrate, such as escaping gang violence, destitution, or persecution, just can’t wait that long.
In 2014, I was young and stupid enough to embark on a voluntourism trip to the treacherous, impoverished cartel-ridden land of the Panamanian-Colombian border. As I jumped over 67 cracks in 20 minutes flanked by an army of machine gun-ridden guards, I could see why so many residents would immediately want out.
Over a million undocumented immigrants arrived to the US as children too young to understand their legal transgression while growing up on the same American values and questionable cartoons as us citizens, their country of origin completely foreign to them as they lived innocuously. But due to being lumped in with violent murderers they’ve never met, millions of these kids are afraid to go to school or even the emergency room out of fear of discovery. Some of them are “no sabo kids” who’d rather learn Japanese and cosplay their favorite anime character than their “native” Spanish, so something tells me they won’t survive being detained for more than a few seconds.
Some kids have taken their own lives, crushed by the weight of the bullying and social stigma. This could have been one of my own undocumented friends, whom I know have contemplated suicide due to impending deportation.
Deporting them would be hardly different than forcing me, an urbanized American from the temperate dry land of California, to live in the tropics for the rest of my days. I’m someone who was already screaming internally after vacationing in the humid jungles of Bali for 10 days, rotting away in a motel from drinking contaminated tea. And that was without mosquito bites.
Not everyone detained has even been undocumented or a criminal: the use of racial profiling to hunt down the undocumented has nabbed a few US citizens, many of whom were actually born in this country. Even some Native Americans have been detained by immigration officials due to “looking illegal”. Yes, the one group that was actually slaughtered en masse by unauthorized European migrants hundreds of years ago.
Many of us also find deportations pointless when there are far more harmful issues to rectify:
I can tell plenty of proponents of deportation have some response long the lines of “well too bad, we don’t care about anyone’s hurt feelings when illegal aliens are literally killing people” to the stories and data above.
So here are a few reasons beyond “hurt feelings” why mass deportations are unnecessary and don’t warrant the damage described above:
Harming the American economy that much harms the American people’s livelihoods
The most obvious arguments against mass deportations so far seem to be its economic consequences to all American citizens: particularly the millions of job losses, raised grocery prices, and the massive craters left in the workforces of many vital industries such as agriculture, construction, and housework. Contrary to popular belief, undocumented immigrants aren’t anywhere near the point of “they’re taking our jobs”.
The truth is more along the lines of “they’re taking the jobs Americans don’t want, but critically need to be filled anyway, which consequently helps businesses profit enough to create the jobs Americans do want.”
The value in these arguments isn’t just to show concern for the economy, but also in appealing to proponents of deportation who don’t seem to give a damn about other people losing their friends and family members. Some people won’t care about or understand an issue until it personally affects them. ➡️ See a collection of stories on that at Leopards Ate My Face.
Because it’s so unlikely most of the vacated jobs will be filled by US citizens, their employers will face economic setbacks on their capacity to afford hiring new workers, leading to a net loss in the amount of available jobs. Decimating the construction workforce would also raise housing prices by lowering the supply of housing, which we already know are horrific enough. It would also wreck rural towns significantly powered by agriculture, since undocumented immigrants comprise about 40% of the country’s current farmworker population.
You’re probably aware of the toxic ways people cope with destabilized economies and job losses, such as developing unhealthy parasocial relationships with LinkedIn influencers or committing a mass shooting. The unusually high unemployment rates of 2020 is plausible theory behind why homicide rates increased by 30% that year.
Morally speaking, is it worth spending billions to subject fellow Americans to the consequences above? Do we really want to make it harder to feed and house ourselves just for the illusion of safety and reduced economic competition? Mass deportations are just giving the energy of your toxic first grade teacher putting the whole class on timeout just because two unhinged kids decided to start a crayon and snot-infested fight while half the class chanted “kick them out!”.
Unauthorized workers in America are not just selling labor and competing with other sellers of labor. They are critical ingredients in production, and removal of those ingredients reduces production.
– Michael Clemens, Economics Professor at George Mason University
Possible rebuttals: Proponents of deportation, such as the border czar Tom Homan, argue that there’s “no price tag” big enough for him to do whatever it takes to fortify the country’s national security and defend innocent Americans from being unalived by migrant crime.
I can’t find the fearmongering civilian tweets at the moment, but I know they spotlighted undocumented murderers to conclude “who cares about the blueberries at this point?” Statements like this convey that manufactured fear for their own safety conquers all — even if they’re aware of the economically devastating facts above.
While these points are typically countered by facts asserting that undocumented immigrants have lower crime rates than US citizens, the problem with these counterarguments is that a lot of folks seem unwilling to trust the data due to hardwired associations with said fearmongering and high crime rates in American communities of color. I’ve written my theories on countering anti-immigrant fear here.
Mass deportations damage to the labor force may also raise wages by about $3 an hour, which has its pros and cons, such as passing these higher labor costs onto consumers by raising prices. Other economic arguments also believe that the undocumented are a net drain on the economy through excessive welfare use and low education levels. This can be countered by evidence asserting the opposite.
Deportations don’t reduce crime. They might even make it worse
One of the most compelling arguments to support deportations is that it’ll kick out all the criminals and potential criminals, therefore fortifying our national safety. Unfortunately, that’s a debunked myth.
Deportations haven’t been found to reduce overall crime rates, partially due to the fact that fewer than half of deported individuals in the past few years actually had criminal records. The deportation crackdown of the last Trump administration did not affect overall immigrant crime rates. Unauthorized immigration also has no correlation with the likelihood of terrorism.
Even though some dangerous criminals have indeed been removed, these instances aren’t worth the widespread harm to everybody else wrecked by the deportation of a harmless loved one.
Although I’m angered by the collateral damage, I do deeply empathize with this particular motive of wanting a safer, more predictable environment for ourselves and our nation. I too, would like to wander around alone at night in peace whether it’s in Los Angeles, Mexico City, or Caracas. I’d rather not get into fights with someone because “you were mean to me in my dream!”
That’s why I’m stating the possibility that mass deportations may further crack the secure safety we all desire: similarly to the impact of mass incarceration, deportation may even increase crime by depriving people of their emotionally stabilizing community members and parents. A more stable community and family can help prevent crime in many ways. This applies to people of all races and backgrounds — I’m pretty sure I was at my most unhinged and feral when I most lacked community, love, and close friendships.
Right-wing folks often identify family stability as a factor conducive to collective safety, raising the correlation of criminal behavior and broken families as a common concern. As previously stated, mass deportation will shatter the 4.7 million families in the US of mixed legal status, leaving us with plenty more of these broken families so reviled by the right. It’s a hell of a lot easier to go on an unhinged rampage when the only person stopping you from doing so can’t see you IRL anymore due to being born in Guatemala just three years before you were fortunate enough to be born in the US to the same family.
Whatever crimes migrants have already committed are rooted systemic issues in the their homelands, issues partially caused by the US that are likely to be exacerbated by receiving more deportees than they can handle. The consequential heightened turmoil would ironically further endanger the overall country, prompting even more migration our way.
Mass incarceration and current deportation policies are also likely to strengthen the gangs we all would rather not have by filling Latin America’s prisons up with more dejected people to band together and give each other face tattoos. Deportations have already been shown to to grow gangs in El Salvador. Salvadoran children who were more exposed to the arrival of deportees at a critical age had a higher probability of ending up in prison as adults. While the causes aren’t clear, I’m guessing it was due to deported, dejected gang members riling up everyone else.
If deportations cause increased violence that pushes other people to leave the country, this may undermine the deterrent effect.
Migration Policy Institute
That may be a compelling argument for not deporting violent criminals, who can stay and face exactly the same penalties as Connor from Nantucket committing the same crime.
➡️ In depth: Large-Scale Deportations May Have Unintended Consequences by Migration Policy Institute
Most deported “criminals” aren’t more of a public safety threat than a lot of Americans
I’m sure nobody wants to share a country with an aspiring MS-13 gangbanger who’ll dismember you for rejecting a romantic date at an abandoned warehouse. Again, I do sympathize with wanting a safer country and not wanting to take in anyone who intentionally entered the US specifically to commit violent crimes.
Getting a criminal record is really easy even when you haven’t harmed anyone
However, the majority of already deported criminals would never do that: they’ve mostly been convicted of minor crimes like drug possession, peeing in public (which can get you on the sex offender registry), and traffic violations — crimes a lot of us have seen rich white folks commit and get away with.
I attended the US’s #11 party school for college, so don’t ask how many white guys I’ve seen pee in public after downing copious amounts of Jaegerbombs. I can also confirm witnessing multiple white guys at the same school getting away with sexual assault, illicit drug use, stabbings, and vomiting on my couch in 2012 without apologizing.
➡️ You can read a collection of horrifically depressing stories from criminal deportees here at your own risk. Many of these crimes aren’t far off from what you might have seen your more privileged counterparts get away with and can be addressed by rehabilitative methods.
Current deportation proceedings typically prioritize migrants who’ve committed “crimes of moral turpitude”, which generally refers to crimes committed with the intention of harming other people. A broader definition is “an act or behavior that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community”. Most minor crimes don’t go this far depending on your perspective, such as the ones described in the stories above. It’s awfully easy to be convicted of a minor and unintentional crime without harming anyone, especially if your race puts you at increased risk for being stopped by the cops.
It’s possible that part of the choice to deport minor criminals lies in the slippery slope fallacy: in the context of committing crimes suggests that engaging in a minor illegal act is a slippery slope to committing more serious crimes, even though there isn’t enough concrete evidence to support this progression. For example, someone might argue that if a person shoplifts once, they’ll eventually escalate to robbing the Apple store at gunpoint and more violent crimes, ignoring other factors like evolving circumstances, guilt, and other deterrences. The recently passed Laken Riley Act may be based on this fallacy.
For a criminal to actually roll down a slippery slope of snowballing immorality, they at least should have some initial intent of moral violation. However, a lot of convictions aren’t even based on much immoral intent or impact at all. For example, DACA recipient Jessica Colotl was an undocumented college student who was detained when a campus security officer caught her for “obstructing traffic” and driving unlicensed. She was fortunately released, but that was well before today’s administration.
Jessica couldn’t even legally obtain a license in the first place because undocumented individuals don’t have the necessary social security numbers do so. Other people have also been detained for 20-year-old marijuana possession charges even after its legalization.
Again, please read a collection of horrifically depressing deportee stories here at your own risk. Did you find someone you can relate to?
Some deportees are even military veterans who arrived to the US as children, caught for drug possession:
Haven’t you had some beer before the age of 21, driven over the speed limit, or illegally tried shrooms, cocaine, ecstasy, or marijuana? What do you think your extroverted hot friends are doing at their yearly pilgrimage to that Electric Daisy Carnival in Vegas?!
Okay yes, some undocumented criminals have actually committed crimes of moral turpitude where another human being was intentionally harmed. Like most other American-born criminals, they’ve served their time and might have redeemed themselves. Deporting them on top of that is just rubbing salt acid in the wound, especially when they’ve got a stabilizing, supportive family.
Sometimes, the so-called criminal never actually committed the crime.
Many potential deportees have wrongful convictions, racial bias is a likely factor
“As small Asian women, we might as well get away with robbing a bank at this point,” my 5’0″ East Asian-American female friend joked. It was 2012 and my first time learning about racial disparities in criminal justice thanks to my Hispanic male college roommate who’d been been pulled over too many times.
People of color are also more likely to be convicted for crimes they didn’t even commit. For example, Black folks are 19 times as likely as whites to be wrongfully convicted of a drug crime. When you’re already stereotyped to be inherently aggressive, uncivilized, and overall threatening, it’s no wonder why society feels more eagerly compelled to lock you up. Black and Hispanic individuals of all genders also serve longer prison sentences compared to whites committing the same crime.
Black and Hispanic individuals are much more likely than everyone else to be wrongfully convicted of a serious crime, including murder and sexual assault. For example, Honduran immigrant Clemente Aguirre spent 14 years wrongfully in prison just because he happened to stumble upon the lifeless bodies of his neighbors. Clemente had recently fled the Honduras to escape retaliation for refusing to join a gang. So next time you hate yourself for attracting another creep on Hinge who won’t take no for an answer, consider yourself lucky compared to this guy.
(PS: The fact that some unauthorized migrants flee to not commit crime is probably another reason contributing to their low crime rates.)
Undocumented Hispanic individuals are more likely to plead guilty when they aren’t due to fear of deportation. Spending five years in an American prison and rolling your eyes at “don’t drop the soap” jokes seems bearable compared to forcibly spending the rest of your life in the country that’ll subject you to abject poverty, human rights abuses, retaliatory gang members, stepping over dead bodies on the way to the grocery store, and unbearable humidity.
If you’re a white woman, you’ve got an advantage in getting a Black or brown man accused and convicted of sexual assault. Given that Black and Hispanic folks are often stereotyped as sexually wilder than everyone else, it makes sense some whites might weaponize that and falsely pose as victims. Black men convicted of sexually assaulting white women have been found to be six times as likely to be innocent compared to white men with the same conviction.
One particularly easy way to be slapped with a “crime of moral turpitude” is a misdemeanor conviction for soliciting minors if you’re unlucky enough. Remember that “minor” legally includes 15-17 year-olds — many of whom can look exactly your age when you’re just 21, especially if you’re scrawny and immature. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you were accidentally eyeing someone much younger than you thought they were between 2014 and 2019: the era of some seriously facially-adultifying, heavy Instagram baddie makeup.
I swear on my family’s life that I look younger at the age of 31 in 2025 than at 24 in 2017. And that if I was forced to deport anyone, those smelly adults with the underage anime girl hentai posters would be the first to go.
All it takes for a conviction to stick is the victim’s accuser’s sketchy boyfriend (whom you also didn’t know she had) to force her to testify against you to prove her undying devotion to him. Or a parent who hates you enough. If their lawyers are just as sketchy and seek to maintain their high conviction rate over your dignity, your deportation risk skyrockets free of any immoral intention or character from your end. You know you would have uncompromisingly stopped the cheesy pickup lines if you had known they were 16 cosplaying as a 21 year-old.
If you’re undocumented, law enforcement and lawyers might be weaponizing your vulnerable status to coerce a false confession, which often happens with younger, physically disoriented suspects accused of the bloodiest crimes.
Part of the reason why psychologists theorize false confessions happen is internalization of assumed guilt. If law enforcement and other people involved are convicted enough in accusing you, their interrogation can intentionally or unintentionally manipulate you to internalize the guilt. Since undocumented immigrants are at greater risk for serious mental health issues, including internalized shame and racism due to their stigmatized legal and social status, it makes sense that they’re especially vulnerable to “I must have done it if they all think I did it. Especially if they’re saying it like that.”
If deportations are to continue, each migrant’s case at least deserves due process for careful review of their actual lives and the crime committed to determine the actual malice in the convicted’s intent and the harm of their impact, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, a lot of deportation cases skirt around these constitutional routines.
Deportation is a violation of human rights
➡️ See more background on how deportations have been unconstitutional at Opinion: Trump’s mass deportations are immoral and illegal from New York University.
“Many of these deportations threaten a range of fundamental human rights including the right to family unity, the right to seek asylum from persecution, the right to humane treatment in detention, the right to due process, and the rights of children,” states the organization Human Rights Watch.
Many deportation cases have been downright unconstitutional. Due process is essential to ensure a fair, respectful, and dignifying trial. However, a lot of fast-paced deportation cases skip over court dates and even a judicial analysis of its details. Not every migrant is guaranteed a lawyer, including children who have been frequently been defending themselves in court.
Possible rebuttals: This analysis of extending constitutional due process protection to migrants states that the Supreme Court maintains the discretion to extend those protections or not depending certain factors such as the migrant’s ties to the US or criminal history. Many proponents of deportation believe that constitutional rights only apply to citizens while opponents believe they apply to any case taking place within our borders regardless of the perpetrator’s nationality or legal status.
Should that really matter though? Without due process or at least some detailed review, how will you know what really went down in their relationship with the US or their criminal history? Also, an immigrant’s life is inextricable with US citizens through employment, interpersonal relationships, or just contributing to the economy through taxes. Even if the individual may not be a citizen, their lives and crimes (if applicable) still transpired within our borders.
Perhaps treating each deportation case as evaluating a series of collective events that took place within US borders and jurisprudence, rather than the isolated actions of a single unauthorized migrant may compel the application of constitutional rights a bit more.
The lack of due process is just giving “I just want you out of this country regardless of you who are are a person” energy. Or a toxic ex who dumps you over text with no closure and blocks you after 7 years together. President Trump’s attempt to invoke the archaic Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is likely to further deteriorate how dismissive and uncommunicative deportations already are.
Deportations are also widely considered a violation of human rights in other countries, such as Australia.
Emotionally speaking, these unlawful acts might be a consequence of the aforementioned dehumanizing anti-migrant propaganda. Why go through the trouble of applying human rights to the subhuman?
It violates the human right to family unity
Given the traumatic consequences of family separation described above, it makes sense that the voluntary choice to stay with one’s family is a human right. Disrupting the parent-caregiver relationship can be highly stressful and damaging to everybody involved in the short and long run, leading to substance abuse, poor academic performance, financial hardship, poor physical and mental health, and trolling interracial couples on Instagram reels.
Family unity as a fundamental human right is rooted in both domestic and international legal principles. The U.S. Constitution protects family integrity through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which courts have interpreted to safeguard the right of parents and children to remain together. The fact that federal immigration laws provide pathways for family-based immigration, such as petitioning on behalf of a spouse or sibling to legally immigrate, shows some federal recognition of the importance of keeping families intact.
Internationally, the U.S. has acknowledged the significance of family unity by signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that the family is “the natural and fundamental group unit of society” and is entitled to protection. “Family values” are zealously touted by our more traditional counterparts, despite many of them hypocritically advocating for policies that hamper a thriving, harmonious family life such as a lack of federal maternity leave. The same family values, as well as Christianity, are even more widely revered in Latin and Asian cultures where most migrants hail from.
For many proponents of deportation, it seems like the gleeful feelings of cleansing the country of vermin and the illusion of national defense trump honoring family integrity. While some may argue that mass deportations violate core American values, I see it as the choice to leverage other right-wing interests core values of punitive justice, racism, and unconditional law abidance over the violated values of family unity, protection for the persecuted, and respect for human dignity.
Possible rebuttals: Given the premise that unauthorized entry is viewed as inherently immoral and threatening to national security, punishing the crime is perceived as morally necessary even when family separation is required to do so. You might hear “if someone commits mass murder at Coachella, we can’t not lock them up just because they’ve got kids to feed.”
This argument assumes that unauthorized entry and mass murder at Coachella both fall within crimes of moral turpitude. That’s where a lot of opponents of deportation beg to differ: unauthorized entry isn’t inherently immoral to the point of warranting such a harmful degree of punishment. This premise is often justified with the fact that laws are universally dynamic and arguments asserting the positive net impact of the undocumented on Americans.
The injustice of family separation will only carry weight if of the morality of unauthorized entry or whatever caused the migrant to be detained in the first place can be justified or neutralized. If not, the need to eradicate the migrant’s perceived potential threat outweighs belief in family unity.
Deporting anyone who’s lived in the US since childhood is especially morally depraved and despicable
“We’re just moving to a safer place where I can get a better job to take care of you kids,” your father says as you and your family pack up your things for the move.
You’re 8 years old in 1999, playing Pokémon Yellow on your GameBoy for several hours while your father drives you and your little brother across Mexico to move to your new home in some new place called Los Angeles. You don’t know why these uniformed guards are holding you up and asking for documents. You barely even know what “documents” even are beyond “boring adult stuff” and “something something yellow folder on the computer”.
You have no idea you’re about to break federal laws for the rest of your life simply by existing and going to school like your fellow kids. “Crime is for bad people like Team Rocket or Doctor Eggman,” you think.
As previously mentioned, over a million undocumented immigrants arrived to the US as children too young to understand they were bound to violate federal law just by growing up in the country they lived in. Some of them are “no sabo kids” who’d rather dance to K-pop than their “native” salsa, merengue, or tinikling. Deporting them would simply seem like banishment, exile, or displacement to a completely foreign nation. Morally, it’s hardly different from deporting a randomly selected white person to a lower-income European country.
Just imagine the most insufferable place you’ve been to as a kid, such as that one desolate town where your cousin who peaked in high school lives. Now imagine a stranger shows up and drags you away to live there for the rest of your adult life, halting your ambitions and separating you from the person you passionately love. You can barely understand what anyone around you is saying, which means you can’t make any friends or get a job.
Wouldn’t most people across the globe consider this pretty messed up if it happened to themselves or a fictional character?
Imagine your friends, neighbors, colleagues, peers, and caretakers being dragged away from their homes. For me, it would mean being forced back to the Philippines, a place I haven’t seen in two decades. My partner, my friends, my work — all I’ve ever known is here, in the country I call home. This country would suffer, too.
Alliyah Lusuegro, from “Mass deportations would be a moral, logistical and economic disaster”
Deporting childhood arrivals is a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which explicitly states “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” As an American who’s only lived in California, Canada, and northern Europe but has traveled to several other overly humid nations and Florida, I definitely think being forced to live in an entirely foreign, unsafe environment (or Florida) is a cruel and unusual punishment.
As mentioned earlier, I’ve been to the treacherous border of South and Central America. (Please don’t ask why.) I’ve already witnessed the violence, poverty, and mosquitos that some deportees would be returning to. If I don’t deserve to endure that just because I was fortunate enough to be born in California, neither do my harmless undocumented friends who had no control over the circumstances of their birth or upbringing. Neither did I. We bonded over our similarly crappy Star Wars cosplays at San Diego Comic-Con, not over threatening national security.
A key differentiating belief between opponents and proponents of deportation is what nation an undocumented migrant belongs to, which is why I’ll mention that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights also states “no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.” This means an unauthorized migrant born in a rural Mexican jungle should still be equally as protected as a New York City-born white male billionaire buying their fifth yacht.
Possible rebuttals: “But they still committed a crime. They deserve to be dragged away from here,” some proponents of deportation will argue. Yes, I know they’re legally inadmissible to the country, especially if there’s some criminal record in the picture (which again, doesn’t automatically imply a moral failure). But come on, how many of us knew what we were doing as children? How many of us had the power to escape our parents’ wishes, especially if they leveraged the terror of the official Immigrant Parent Battle Cry: throwing slippers?
In other words, how much intent to commit a legal or moral violation did these immigrants really have? How harmful has the impact of their extended stay in the US been? Does contemporary law have to dictate morality in every case?
Even our federal justice system doesn’t punish minors as severely for the same offenses as adults. Minors can’t sign legally binding contracts or vote in elections. So why are they unusually adultified in this particular case? There’s already evidence proving youth of color are more likely to be prosecuted as adults, so perhaps racism may be a factor in this country’s inability to protect certain children or at least their childhood actions.
The justification for ending DACA and the failure of the DREAM Act was simply that it was unconstitutional and rewarded the circumvention of laws, which seems to be a clear example of putting staunchly unconditional law abidance over honoring family values, understanding nuance, critical thinking, or empathy. Contrary to these assumptions, DACA doesn’t seem to have provided much incentive for further unauthorized migration — the amount of unauthorized immigrants in the US actually decreased after its creation in 2012 but increased after its termination in 2021.
Without the protection of DACA, millions of foreign-born immigrants fellow Americans are being punished for living harmless lives in a location chosen exclusively by someone else. I don’t think people with that lack of ill will towards this country deserve to be called “illegal aliens” or have the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 invoked on them, which the president is currently figuring out how to do.
Did you have a say in where you were born or where you grew up? Is a child who moves from Houston to NYC at the age of 8 who still resides there at 35 an “alien” to NYC? Especially if it’s in the same freakishly overpriced apartment?
Deportation will take away the friends and romantic partners we love dearly
A few weeks before the 2024 presidential election, I cried for hours in a gorgeous Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand. Although I’m a Catholic-raised atheist, I was desperate enough to pretend to be of multiple religions across multiple Southeast Asian nations to pray for my undocumented friends. While I trekked through painfully humid tropical climates for fun, they were fighting to not be involuntarily deported back to one, fearfully awaiting the election results and contemplating suicide.
Not every undocumented person we risk losing is an immediate family member, but they can still mean the precious world to us. The undocumented are often portrayed as economically vital underpaid employees, but they’re also our friends, neighbors, classmates, romantic partners, mentors, and totally-not-underpaid employees.
Some of us won’t be able to fill the void left by these relationships as easily as others, especially those of us with physical and mental disabilities causing us to struggle with social interaction in general.
As an American with ADHD and several autism symptoms, surrounded by neurodivergent friends from all over the world, I know that mass deportations will put some autistic Americans at risk of losing the most critical pieces of their support systems: the few humans who just get them.
I met an American woman will lose her loving husband who compassionately comforted her as she faced daily workplace abuse and constant sexual harassment, both of which autistic individuals are especially vulnerable to due to misreading social cues or lacking the communication skills to defend themselves. On his end, he’ll be losing the love of his life: the irreplaceable, eccentric, exciting woman who saw through his underprivileged status and rugged facade to embrace the softhearted nerd he truly was. When I met them both at San Diego Comic-Con, I could confirm the way he looks at her is worthy of a viral “get you a man who looks at you like this” Instagram reel.
He’s an American to us. Not a foreign Mexican alien cosplaying as an American.
We’d all like to stay in the US and continue being Americans. I’ve already reveled in the enchanting fjords of Norway, the politeness of Canada, the magnificent temples of Thailand, the colorful buildings of Mexico, the progressive politics of the Netherlands and Sweden, and the disappointing Eiffel Tower of France. I choose this country every day.
The US may be depraved in many ways —social injustices, systemic inequalities, and political divisions continue to challenge its ideals. Yet, it remains a nation of wonderfully enriching diversity, boundless opportunities, massive portion sizes, and an incredibly ambitious population that fuels innovation and change. Its people, shaped by different cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs, are resilient and unafraid to stand up for what they believe in, constantly pushing the country toward progress in the face of adversity like that of today’s regime.
Amidst its flaws, the U.S. is still a place of hope, creativity, and determination, where voices rise protected by free speech, globally influential movements are born, and the dream of a better future endures. And measuring things in football fields rather than the metric system.
“Cry harder,” proponents of deportation callously say. I sometimes faintly feel their distress for their own safety that I used to feel, misled to believe that the undocumented are highly likely to unalive their families or at least steal their precious iPhones. When a certain group is consistently portrayed as an invasive criminal horde, cleansing them out sounds like the morally justified choice.
I can’t reiterate enough how harmful today’s dehumanization of migrants is, as dehumanization enables harm without remorse. When you zap those spiders in the corner of your bathroom, you aren’t exactly thinking of those poor spider families you might be wrecking, right?
That’s why mass deportations will only cease when more Americans and our current administration recognizes the human complexity of all migrants and the lack of harm they actually pose to national security. It needs to be seen as an act of destroying innocent human lives, not one of exterminating vermin.
It’s funny how the states who have least amount of immigration complain about it the most.
Not even illegal immigrants want to move there lmao, most of the illegal population live in blue states. If immigrants where an actual problem, all the coastal states would had voted for Trump.
There is no real logic on the hatred of immigrants, like OP said. It’s all manufactured!
It’s as if your views on immigrants becomes more factually accurate and empathetic when you actually know them or know people who know them IRL. The people complaining about legal or illegal immigrants most only see their media portrayals, most of which are horror stories.