One of President Donald Trump’s major promises during the 2024 presidential campaign was to conduct mass deportations of immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally. Just three weeks into President Trump’s second term, Americans have witnessed a frenzy of arrests and deportations, separating families and removing important workers.
As of Feb. 3, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted on X that their agents had arrested 8,768 people, which is approximately 4,384 people a month, and about 150 a day. Continuing at this rate would lead to over 52,000 deported immigrants by next year, but these numbers are not high enough for ICE and President Trump. According to an article by NBC News, the ICE acting Director Caleb Vitello, told ICE agents to aim for 1,200 to 1,400 arrests a day. Yet, that is not enough for President Trump, stating he wants to deport “millions and millions” of people, in the same article. Deporting 1 million immigrants in a year would be 2,700 immigrants each day.
If this trend continues, prices could rise 9.1% by 2028, the opposite of what President Trump promised to do throughout his campaign. Prices could rise significantly because 70% of farm workers are immigrants, where 40% of that 70% are undocumented. If we continue to deport workers, we could lose up to 225,000 agricultural workers and 1.5 million construction workers.
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) has estimated that if deportation rates continue to rise, deporting one million people each year (2,700 immigrants each day) until there is no undocumented population, could cost us a 4.2% to 6.8% loss in GDP. To put this in perspective for you, the economy’s GDP lowered 4.3% during the Great Recession.
Not only will the loss of these immigrants cost the US money, but the cost to actually deport these people is an exorbitant amount. According to the American Immigration Council (AIC), deporting one million immigrants per year would cost $88 billion. The sum of the $88 billion is divided between arrests, ($7 billion), detention camps, ($66 billion), carrying out legal processing, ($12.6 billion), and relocating these immigrants, ($2.1 billion).
In the midst of this confusing and scary time, Tharyn Mulberry, Aspen School District’s Superintendent, continues to promise a safe environment at ASD for its immigrant students.
“I urge our community, state, and national leaders to respect and uphold the principle that schools should remain safe havens for students. We owe it to our students, our community, and our profession to rise above the noise and act in their best interest,” Mulberry said in an email to the ASD community on Feb. 4, 2025.
