Immigration and Deportation

EconoFact Chats

Most of the United States’ population growth is now due to immigration. Among these is an estimated 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants have been deported both through enforcement at the border and by being removed from within the United States. Recently, former President Trump has called for mass deportation of millions of people. How realistic is this goal? What would be the economic consequences of deporting even a fraction of the large number of people that Trump has called for? Does the threat of deportation have a chilling effect on those in this country legally? How would it affect communities that include both the undocumented and legal residents? Tara Watson joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these questions. Tara is the Director of the Center for Economic Security and Opportunity at Brookings. Her most recent book is 'The Border Within: The Economics of Immigration in an Age of Fear,' co-authored with Kalee Thompson.