U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary: “How Mass Deportations Will Separate American Families, Harm Our Armed Forces, and Devastate Our Economy”
December 10, 2024
Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Graham, and honorable members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, thank you for the opportunity to provide written testimony for the hearing “How Mass Deportations Will Separate American Families, Harm Our Armed Forces, and Devastate Our Economy.” Children’s Defense Fund is a national nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to building community so young people grow up with dignity, hope, and joy. Established in 1999, Children’s Defense Fund-Texas (CDF-TX) has connected more than one million children and youth to affordable health care, supported Texas youth in pursuing education and personal growth, and advocated for resources that nurture the next generation of leaders. Today, we advocate for policies benefiting Texas families, provide essential resources, and amplify the voices of youth, families, and communities. We believe that every child deserves a safe passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
CDF-TX strongly opposes the policy of mass deportations proposed by the incoming presidential administration. Based on our expertise working at the intersection of immigration policy and child well-being, we urge Congress to oppose mass deportation efforts. Such efforts would result in family separations on an unprecedented scale, causing irreparable psychological harm that compromises millions of children’s lifelong ability to thrive psychologically, socially, and economically. Mass deportations would negatively impact all Americans by damaging our economy and our social fabric, robbing our communities of millions of teachers, co-workers, classmates, caregivers, entrepreneurs, homeowners, neighbors, friends, and relatives. However, the immediate and long-term harms of mass deportations would disproportionately be borne by communities of color and by Black and Brown children in particular.
As of 2022, roughly 11 million people were living in the United States who “lacked permanent legal status and faced the possibility of removal.”[1] Additionally, between January 2023 and April 2024, the Department of Homeland Security released “an additional 2.3 million people who have crossed the southern U.S. border without legal immigration status.”[2] Taking into account “the expenses associated with arrest, detention, legal processing, and removal,” the American Immigration Council estimates that the cost of removing these roughly 13.3 million immigrants in a “one-time mass deportation operation” would be at least $315 billion.[3] Based on American Community Survey (ACS) data and publicly available information about current immigration enforcement costs, a longer-term operation in which one million immigrants are deported each year would cost even more: an average of $88 billion annually, for a total of $967.9 billion over more than 10 years.[4]
Mass deportations would also have devastating impacts on the U.S. economy through reduced tax revenues and labor shocks in key industries such as “construction, agriculture, and the hospitality sector.”[5] Undocumented immigrant households paid nearly $47 billion in federal taxes and more than $29 billion in state and local taxes in 2022 alone, and nearly 14% of workers in the construction industry are undocumented.[6] The economic disruptions caused by the sudden absence of undocumented immigrants from our nation’s workforce would likely worsen the housing affordability crisis[7] and could cause job loss for hundreds of thousands of workers born in the U.S.[8]
Yet, as staggering as these numbers are, they fail to capture the full cost of mass deportations to our country. CDF-TX is most concerned about the human costs of mass deportation that will be borne by children living in immigrant and mixed-status families (families whose members include individuals with different citizenship or immigration statuses). Should these children be separated from their parents or other family members through deportations, that trauma will ripple through every area of their lives and reverberate through future generations of their families.
Across the U.S., an estimated 5.1 million U.S. citizen children live with an undocumented family member.[9] More than one million of those children are in Texas, where 12.5% of all U.S. citizen children live with at least one undocumented parent.[10] As of 2022, 47.2% of all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. lived in just three states: California, Texas, and Florida.[11] Therefore, the psychological, social, and economic impact of mass deportations will disproportionately fall on these states, where one out of every 20 residents could be deported.[12]
For children in immigrant families, even the threat of immigration enforcement can have devastating effects that begin before birth and influence lifelong health, education, and earnings outcomes. Research has linked heightened immigration enforcement to decreased use of prenatal care for immigrant mothers and declines in birth weight for their babies.[13] Fear of immigration-related consequences also deters immigrant families in Texas from accessing vital nutrition support programs and causes them to go without health insurance coverage through Medicaid and CHIP. In a qualitative study “of 32 geographically diverse organizations in Texas,” CDF-TX found that between 2017 and 2019, anti-immigrant policies caused many mixed-status families to “fear enrolling even their citizen children in federal benefits programs for which they qualify.”[14]
During the previous Trump administration, the Center for Law and Social Policy documented that “children as young as three [were] deeply aware of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant sentiment and the possibility of losing a parent.”[15] Although too young to comprehend the details of the policies threatening their families, these children expressed fear of having their parents taken away and demonstrated their fear through behaviors “such as increased aggression, separation anxiety, and withdrawal from their environments.”[16] Interviews conducted with child care workers, educators, and service providers across six states showed that “pervasive fear [was] not limited to children in mixed-status families but extend[ed] to children whose parents have lawful immigration status—some even children of U.S. citizens.”[17]
If mass deportations are carried out, four million mixed-status families across our country could be torn apart.[18] In the past, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has frequently arrested and deported immigrant parents without putting in place any plan for the care of their children, placing these children in immediate danger.[19] Aside from the obvious risks to physical health and safety that arise when a child is left without adult supervision or guardianship in the wake of their caregiver’s arrest, children also suffer severe psychological harm from losing a primary caregiver.[20] Research has repeatedly shown the “far reaching effects of these separations into adulthood, including increased risk for mental health problems, poor social functioning, insecure attachment, disrupted stress reactivity, and mortality.”[21] The Society for Community Research and Action, Division 27 of American Psychological Association, notes that “[f]ollowing deportation of a family member, children demonstrate numerous emotional and behavioral challenges, such as eating and sleeping changes, anxiety, sadness, anger, and withdrawal.”[22]
Deportation of a parent has also been linked to developmental delays, decreased household income, and an increased risk of poverty.[23] Children whose families are separated could face hunger, housing instability, and homelessness as a result of losing their breadwinners.[24] Moreover, after a parent is detained or deported, children’s grades and school attendance often drop, and older children may be forced to drop out of school altogether, either to work or to care for younger siblings.[25] This negatively impacts their future job prospects and their ability to participate in society or support themselves financially. Family separation impacts every area of a child’s life.
Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up in a family and a community where their basic needs are met and where they experience safety, belonging, and care. We urge all members of Congress to defend the well-being of our nation’s children and ensure their safe passage to adulthood, regardless of immigration status, by standing boldly against mass deportations.
[1] American Immigration Council. “Mass Deportation: Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy.” Oct. 2024, p. 1, www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/mass-deportation. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[2] American Immigration Council, supra note 1 at p. 1.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid at p. 1-2.
[5] Ibid at p. 3.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Chen, Zhao. “The Potential Impact of Immigration Policies on Housing.” Redfin Real Estate News, 21 Nov. 2024, www.redfin.com/news/impact-immigration-policy-housing/. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[8] American Immigration Council, supra note 1 at p. 3.
[9] Ibid.
[10] “Immigrants in Texas.” American Immigration Council, Aug. 2024, map.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/locations/texas/. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[11] American Immigration Council, supra note 1 at p. 5.
[12] American Immigration Council, supra note 1 at p. 5.
[13] Tome R, Rangel MA, Gibson-Davis CM, Bellows L. “Heightened immigration enforcement impacts US citizens’ birth outcomes: Evidence from early ICE interventions in North Carolina.” PLoS ONE, vol.16, no. 2: e0245020, 3 Feb. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245020. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[14] Anderson, Cheasty. “Public Charge and Private Dilemmas: Key Challenges and Best Practices for Fighting the Chilling Effect in Texas, 2017-2019.” Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, Nov. 2020, p. 1, Bellaire, TX, www.childrensdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Public-Charge-and-Private-Dilemmas-TX_FINAL-020.pdf. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[15] Cervantes, Wendy, Rebecca Ullrich, and Hannah Matthews, “Our Children’s Fear: Immigration Policy’s Effects on Young Children.” CLASP, Mar. 2018, p. 2, Washington, D.C., www.clasp.org/sites/default/files/publications/2018/03/2018_ourchildrensfears.pdf. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid at p. 8.
[18] American Immigration Council, supra note 1 at p. 5.
[19] Cervantes, Wendy, Rebecca Ullrich, and Vanessa Meraz. “The Day That ICE Came: How Worksite Raids Are Once Again Harming Children and Families.” CLASP, 2020, pp. 5-6, Washington, D.C., www.clasp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CLASP_Worksite_Raid_Report_final4.pdf. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[20] Bouza, Johayra, et al. “The Science is Clear: Separating Families has Long-term Damaging Psychological and Health Consequences for Children, Families, and Communities.” Society for Research in Child Development, 20 June 2018, www.srcd.org/briefs-fact-sheets/the-science-is-clear. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Langhout, Regina Day et al. “Statement on the Effects of Deportation and Forced Separation on Immigrants, their Families, and Communities: A Policy Statement by the Society for Community Research and Action: Division 27 of the American Psychological Association.” American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 62, no. 1-2, Sept. 2018, pp. 3-12. Wiley Online Library, https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12256. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[23] “Afterthoughts: The Children of Deported Parents.” Children Thrive Action Network, 13 June 2024. childrenthriveaction.org/2024/06/afterthoughts-the-children-of-deported-parents/. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
[24] American Immigration Council, supra note 1 at p. 3.
[25] Children Thrive Action Network, 13 June 2024. “Afterthoughts: The Children of Deported Parents.” childrenthriveaction.org/2024/06/afterthoughts