Karyn Gattermann: Only mass deportations occurring are removal of illegal immigrants

To The Daily Sun,

A letter published on April 1 was an April Fool's joke. The mass deportations occurring are removal of illegal immigrants and/or immigrants that lost prior legal status. Relative to the economic contributions of undocumented workers to taxes, Social Security and Medicare, the only undocumented workers that should be making these contributions should already have work authorizations (think those covered under DACA or with temporary protected status for example). There are laws (1986, 1990 and 1996) that require each and every business hiring workers in the U.S. to verify the right of the worker to work legally in the U.S. before hiring them (form I-9). Thus, the undocumented workers who made the contributions cited should be legal workers and are not subject to the deportations unless they lost their protected status and then would no longer be making these contributions. Therefore, the mass deportations should have no effect on the economic contributions cited and these are irrelevant to the costs of mass deportation. Instead, the cost of mass deportation should be compared to the savings that the deportations will accrue. In August 2024, New York City alone had spent an estimated $5 billion in 2023 and 2024 on housing, services, feeding the recent influx of illegal migrants. In addition, NYC estimated at that time that by June 2025 that number would top $10 billion. Another singular example of cost is the 60 apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, that a court issued an emergency order to shut down in January of this year as it posed an “imminent threat to public safety and welfare” after being taken over by Tren de Aragua (recently declared a terrorist organization). How much do we think that actual total cost is throughout all the U.S.?

Karyn Gattermann

New Hampton