What it could mean for New Jersey

New Jersey residents could lose constitutional rights, the state could lose $1.3 billion in taxes and more than 470,000 people could be sent to detention centers if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his mass deportation promise.

Or the plan might be too difficult and expensive to fully implement. Either way, undocumented immigrants and their advocates are preparing for the worst.

“I’m working to help myself, my family and my family in my country,” said Alejandro, a North Plainfield resident who came to this country in 2019 and asked to be identified only by his first name because he doesn’t have one has papers. “If they deport these people, they will ruin these families and they will be missing a large number of hard-working people.”

During the campaign, Trump said that if elected he would push for the deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants. The first step toward this goal was Trump’s election of Tom Homan as “border czar.” Homan worked for the Border Patrol for 34 years and served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first two years of Trump’s first term.

Homan, who would hold a position that does not require Senate confirmation, has endorsed Trump’s plan for mass deportations. Homan said in an interview with Newsmax last week that Trump could bypass any attempts by local authorities to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, adding: “Federal law trumps state and local laws every time. So if you don’t want to help, get this.” Get the hell out of the way… We have a mandate that means business. This will happen with or without you.

Alejandro, assisted by a translator, said Trump’s plan was extreme and would ruin families.

“I think it’s a crazy thing without common sense. It goes beyond regulating things in a country,” said Alejandro, a native of Ecuador. “It seems to be more of a personal attitude that he has towards immigrants. These people are workers, as are their entire families.”

The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice said the state may not be able to protect immigrants from deportation.

Homan “would monitor the borders with Mexico and Canada as well as U.S. coastlines and airspace,” the alliance said in a statement. “Because of our coastline and international airport, the entire state of New Jersey falls within the 100-mile border zone, a zone in which certain constitutional rights can be suspended and in which ICE and CBP can conduct unauthorized immigration checks on public transportation and vehicles .” .”

The statement referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both federal agencies.

Adam McGovern, a legislative strategist at Wind of the Spirit, an immigrant advocacy group based in Morris and Union counties, said the group will increase efforts to ensure undocumented immigrants are prepared.

“Not much changes in our work. It’s just a question of the level and intensity with which we will work,” McGovern said. “We need to pay a lot more attention to meetings about their rights and interactions with ICE.”

Impact of mass deportation on New Jersey

A 2022 American Immigration Council report on immigrants living in New Jersey found that undocumented residents made up about 5% of the state’s workforce and paid $3.4 billion in taxes, with $1.3 billion went to local and state governments. According to the report, these immigrants spent a total of $10.8 billion.

The council also noted that more than 40,000 New Jersey residents live with an undocumented immigrant spouse and more than 196,000 U.S. citizen children live with at least one undocumented family member. It is estimated that there are approximately 470,000 undocumented immigrants living in New Jersey.

Related:ICE wants to expand detention centers in New Jersey. What does that mean?

Before deportation, people would be held in deportation detention centers. There are currently two in New Jersey.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently obtained documents in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showing that ICE plans to add about 600 beds at one of two detention centers: the Elizabeth Detention Center and the Albert M. “Bo” Robinson Center in Trenton.

Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a statement that the Biden administration must immediately close these facilities and others across the country.

“Rather than closing abusive detention facilities once and for all, the Biden administration is simply paving the way for the incoming Trump administration to carry out mass detention and deportations of immigrant communities across the country,” Cho said.

Mass deportation – or not?

Some Trump supporters are skeptical that Trump will follow through.

One of them is Carlos Rendo, the mayor of Woodcliff Lake in Bergen County, an immigration attorney with an office in Hudson County. “I have to judge him on his first term,” Rendo said. “In his first term he did deport individuals, but most of them were people with criminal backgrounds or deportation orders. He’s basically saying he’s not anti-immigration, but you have to immigrate to this country legally.”

The Migration Policy Institute found that there were 1.5 million deportations during Donald Trump’s first term as president, a number that could be surpassed under the Biden administration.

Another factor that could hamper efforts is the cost of mass deportation.

The American Immigration Council found in a report released last month that the cost of mass deportation of one million people per year could be $88 billion annually due to costs “associated with apprehension, detention, legal processing, and deportation.” The council estimates that Trump’s goal of deporting 11 million people would result in a cost of $968 billion over 10 years.

Reaction:What do these immigrants think about Trump’s return to the White House?

Want to stay here

Alejandro, 35, works for a landscaping and construction company in South Plainfield. He is unmarried and has no children. His father Carlos lives in the same building.

“When my father asked me to come to the United States, I didn’t think twice about it. I wanted to avoid the danger of being with the wrong people,” Alejandro said. “So I thought about my safety and left.”

The looming specter of mass incarceration of newcomers worries him, but he’s more concerned about his father, also undocumented but seeking citizenship, and other undocumented immigrants living in the same building.

“The fear is great,” said Alejandro. “When you come to this country, you obviously feel a restriction. There are certain people you can’t talk to because you’re afraid and because you hear stories of parents who were deported while their children were in school.”

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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