Statement for the Record: Mass Deportations

Submitted to U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, “How Mass Deportations Will Separate American Families, Harm Our Armed Forces, and Devastate Our Economy.”

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 10:00AM

Dear Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Graham, and Members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to submit a written statement on behalf of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).

We respectfully request that this statement be made part of the record for the December 10, 2024, Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s hearing. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to defending and advancing the rights and opportunities of low-income immigrants and their families. We advocate for laws and policies that allow immigrants and their families to thrive, including access to health care and public assistance programs, education, and workers’ rights.

We applaud Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for holding this hearing to explore the devastating harms of mass immigration detention and deportation policies. United States history has been marked by shameful episodes of demagoguery and heightened enforcement against immigrants and people of immigrant descent, from the mass raids of the Eisenhower era to the tragic family separation policy of the first Trump administration. We are bereaved to hear the President-elect threatening to unleash such terror again and encourage Members of Congress to be vigilant and robust in opposition.

The incoming administration has loudly announced plans for mass deportations, including using the military and local law enforcement to carry out their efforts.1 These threats have already created immense fear among immigrant communities, including the nearly six million U.S. households that include an undocumented family member.2 The chronic fear generated by threat of mass immigration enforcement operations causes long-lasting physical, psychological, social, and financial consequences for immigrants and their families. Across the country, people are rushing to make impossible decisions as they anticipate what is to come; for many, deportation would force a choice between permanent family separation or life in exile away from their U.S. citizen children.

Mass detention and deportations threaten to destabilize our nation’s economy and undermine the support we all need as communities – health and wellbeing, education and learning, and safety in our workplaces.

*For footnotes and bibliography, please reference the PDF version of this resource below.