By Maribel Hastings
As thousands of federal employees are laid off and thousands of immigrants are deported, the economic contributions of those immigrants that Donald Trump removes become more necessary through their federal, state and local tax payments, and their contributions to the solvency of vital programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
The increase in unemployment, the elimination of the economic resources provided by immigrants and the shortage of labor in key industries due to deportations, do not bode well for our economy. Add to that the tariff war started by Trump and the inflation and shortage of products that it can generate. Not to mention that Trump wants to finance his indiscriminate deportation machinery with cuts to vital programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, among others, as America’s Voice denounces in its new campaign At what cost?
The campaign seeks to pressure congressmen to reject the cuts to important health, food and public safety programs with which Trump wants to pay for the separation of families.
Trump on Tuesday gave a long and disconcerting first speech riddled with lies before a joint session of Congress. As expected, he only referred to immigrants in the context of criminals, gang members and drug traffickers.
And he promoted his “golden card” for investors by saying that the $5 million it costs will bring in money to pay off the national debt, as if immigrants in the United States, with or without documents, contributed nothing to the economy.
This shows that his anti-immigrant crusade is based on discrimination against people of color, because otherwise a true businessman would not throw away the billions of dollars that these undocumented immigrants contribute annually to the country’s economy. Common sense suggests that legalizing this workforce would be even more beneficial to the economy, but racism weighs more than logic in this administration.
The numbers speak for themselves. Trump, for example, revoked TPS for more than 300,000 Venezuelans and half a million Haitians. Other groups covered by the program that offers protection from deportation and work permits are in Trump’s sights.
In fact, three organizations and four TPS beneficiaries filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts against the DHS, stating that the decisions to repeal TPS are motivated by “discrimination based on the race, ethnicity, and country of origin” of the beneficiaries, Univision reported.
According to the American Immigration Council, “in 2021 alone, TPS beneficiaries contributed more than $2.2 billion in taxes, including nearly $1 billion to state and local governments. They also had $8 billion in purchasing power, which supports countless American businesses when spent on items such as groceries, haircuts, or rent.”
Another group at risk are the Dreamers covered by DACA. According to an analysis by Boundless Immigration, “DACA recipients contribute an estimated $1.7 billion annually in state and local taxes, including personal income, sales, and property taxes.” They also “contribute $2.1 billion to Social Security and Medicare each year.”
And overall, all undocumented immigrants inject billions of dollars annually into the economy. “In 2022 alone, undocumented immigrant households paid $46.8 billion in federal taxes and $29.3 billion in state and local taxes. Undocumented immigrants also contributed $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare,” according to the American Immigration Council.
That is, Trump promised to lower the cost of groceries and other services for Americans, but his obsessive offensive against immigrants that dramatically reduces the number of taxpayers to the government coffers and eliminates labor in vital economic sectors, such as agriculture, will have the opposite effect.
It remains to be seen whether, once Trump’s policies hurt their pockets and their quality of life, his faithful followers will lose their grip. Or whether their prejudice outweighs the economic well-being of their families and the country.
“America is back,” Trump declared. Back to ignominy.
Maribel Hastings is a Senior Advisor and columnist at America’s Voice.