WASHINGTON – The top Republican on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office and the GOP takes control of the Senate, lawmakers’ first priority will be to pass a border security package through a complicated process called budget reconciliation.
Trump promised his base that his administration would carry out mass deportations of people living in the country illegally. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told a court hearing that Senate Republicans would focus on increasing the number of beds in detention centers, hiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and purchasing technology to enforce law on the southern border.
“We believe that the only way to take control of the border is to start deportations earlier,” he said. “If we don’t have an outflow, the inflow will continue.”
But a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council’s pro-immigration think tank, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, told the panel the endeavor would be exorbitant.
Carrying out mass deportations of 1 million people would be possible costs approximately $88 billion annually for arrests, detentions and expulsions, he said. About 13 million people live in the United States illegally.
Repair of a damaged system
The committee hearing, led by Democrats who currently control the Senate but will be in the minority next year, examined the consequences of Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.
“Instead of mass deportations, mass accountability,” said the committee chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. “Let’s fix our broken immigration system in a way that protects our country and honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants.”
The budget reconciliation process Graham cited, which if successful would be used to pass border security legislation, would allow Republicans to bypass the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate.
Reconciliation is commonly used when one party controls the House, Senate and White House because it only requires a majority vote in each chamber.
Graham added that Republicans would also prevent people paroled into the country under executive authority from pursuing another avenue to obtain legal immigration status. The Republican Party is critical of programs that allow some citizens of Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela to temporarily work and live in the United States.
“So if you are here illegally, prepare to leave,” Graham said.
program IF
One of the hearing witnesses, Foday Turay, is participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which is awaiting a federal court ruling on its legality after the Trump administration tried to end it.
Separately on Monday at federal court blocked implementing the Biden administration’s final rule allowing DACA recipients access to health care under the Affordable Care Act.
The program, which aims to protect against deportation children brought to the country without permission, covers approximately 500,000 people. It also enables them to obtain work permits.
Turay is an assistant district attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and said deportation would devastate his family because he is the main source of income in his household.
He said his wife, a U.S. citizen, is the primary caregiver for her mother, a disabled person who is undergoing cancer treatment. Additionally, Turay said he would have to leave his son behind if he was deported.
Another witness, Patty Morin of Aberdeen, Maryland, told how her daughter Rachel died. The suspect has been charged with first-degree murder and sexual assault, was in the country illegally and had a prior criminal record.
Durbin said Democrats do not oppose ICE carrying out its duties to deport people with criminal records, and emphasized that Trump’s plans for mass deportations extend beyond that group to include people like Turay.
“This man chases criminals for a living,” Durbin said of Turay. “The other person is clearly a criminal with a record. When we say “mass deportations,” should we treat them the same because they are both undocumented?”
Graham said that when it comes to DACA, “hopefully we can find a solution to this problem.”
Over the weekend, Trump expressed his support for reaching an agreement with Democrats to allow DACA recipients to remain in the country, despite attempts to end the program during his first term.
Use of the National Guard
Durbin expressed concern about Trump’s comments about using the National Guard to carry out mass deportations.
One witness, Randy Manner, a retired U.S. Army major general, said he saw problems with using the military for mass deportations.
This could impact military readiness, he said, and the military is not trained in this area.
“Federal law enforcement is responsible for enforcing immigration laws,” Manner said.
He added that ordering soldiers to comply with this directive would have a negative impact on morale and recruitment. Manner also said that involving the U.S. military in this type of political messaging would undermine public trust.
The cost of mass deportations
Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar stated that mass deportations would not only be harmful to communities, but would also pose a financial burden.
Reichlin-Melnick said industries that will be hit particularly strenuous by job losses include construction, agriculture and hospitality.
Reichlin-Melnick also argued that ICE already focuses on arrests and deportation proceedings against non-citizens with criminal records.
“The vast majority of people who would be targeted in a mass deportation campaign had no criminal record,” he said. “These are people who are law-abiding in this country, who live, work and, in many cases, pay taxes.”
Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn suggested that local law enforcement should have the authority to carry out deportations, even though immigration enforcement is a federal issue.
Art Arthur, a law and policy specialist at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates keen restrictions on immigration, supported the idea.
“These will be the people who are best able to get these individuals out of the community,” Arthur said of local law enforcement.
Last updated at 16:23, December 10, 2024
