OtherWords
Alliyah Lusuegro
02/12/2025
President Trump has made it clear that he’s dead set on attacking our immigrant friends, families, and neighbors — and that the only people he’ll protect are his loyalists and billionaires.
Since day one, Trump has launched a blatantly hateful agenda against immigrants. He’s issued executive orders that would unlawfully shut down asylum at the U.S. southern border, use the military to separate families, and make it easier to detain and deport migrants — including detaining them at the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.
Meanwhile, anti-immigrant lawmakers in Congress gave Trump a helping hand by passing a law punishing undocumented people, including minors, with deportation for minor offenses — even if they’re not convicted.
These attacks come at an enormous cost to the entire country. The American Immigration Council estimates that mass deportations will cost $88 billion per year over the course of a decade.
My colleagues and I calculated that this $88 billion could instead erase medical debt for 40 million Americans. Even just a fraction of it — $11 billion — could provide free lunch to all school children in the United States.
