Trump's 'mass deportation' plan could affect 5 percent of Florida's population

Miami-Dade, in particular, could be ground zero for Trump’s immigration policies.

Austin Bogues

| Capital Office | USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

With President-elect Donald Trump ready declare a national emergency to clear your way mass exile Florida may face undocumented immigration problem wholesale deduction next year.

Migration experts say: 5% of Florida’s population – 1.1 million residents – live here without legal permission. How far Trump goes will be critical in gauging the impact of deportation on communities, families, businesses and Florida’s economy.

People who live and work in Florida may be at risk such programs As Temporary Protected Status (TPS), asylum, or parole for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) immigrants.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which has allowed thousands of children born to undocumented parents to build new lives in Florida, could disappear soon after Trump takes office in January.

Deportations could cause ‘real problems in Florida’

“When you add up these programs, we have real problems in Florida,” said Juan Carlos Gomez, a professor and immigration expert at Florida International University School of Law.

“What will be the consequences for the economy? So what are the other consequences of this for people and families? “There are a lot of people who are very scared right now,” Gomez added.

Miami-Dade County, almost 70% Hispanic populationShe voted overwhelmingly for Trump in November, and Republicans won by 11 percentage points over Democrat Kamala Harris. This was the first time a Republican presidential candidate carried the district since 1988.

But Miami-Dade may be ground zero for Trump’s immigration policies.

“It seems like a lot of people thought, ‘This doesn’t apply to me,'” Gomez said. “We will find out.”

Trump claims that mass deportations would reduce crime and create more jobs for U.S.-born Americans. On Monday, he confirmed that he planned to declare undocumented immigration a national emergency and deploy the military to carry out deportations.

American Immigration Councila research and advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. published a report Last month, it was claimed that deporting the estimated 13.3 million undocumented immigrants in the US would cost taxpayers at least $315 billion.

Nearly half live in Florida, Texas and California.

But the report concluded: “Every American taxpayer will bear the financial burden of mass deportation—made worse by the reduced tax base that mass deportation would create—and every American will feel the effects of a devastated labor market.”

Florida’s law leads to smaller-scale migration

Florida may have gotten a glimpse of what Trump’s deportation plan could bring.

Governor Ron DeSantis last year passed a law penalizing employers who use undocumented workers and legally prohibiting non-residents from obtaining driver’s licenses.

DeSantis said he has no problem with companies hiring immigrants as long as it’s done legally.

But Florida’s agriculture, construction and tourism industries rely heavily on a workforce whose legal status is questionable.

The new law led to an exodus of many immigrant workers from Florida and caused dozens of businesses and industry associations to complain about labor shortages over the past two years, at a time when available jobs in Florida have already outnumbered applicants.

Although the plan came in January, Florida leaders deferred to the feds

Florida’s new legislative leaders, both Republicans, deflected questions about the impact of deportation on the state.

“Any immigration policy from the federal government will be decided by the federal government,” said House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami.

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, who, like Perez, was sworn in to a two-year leadership term on Tuesday, offered little information: “This is a federal matter,” he said. “That’s up to the federal government.”

Florida is among a half-dozen states that each collect more than $1 billion in taxes from undocumented immigrants; This is a stream of public money that will disappear with deportations.

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-profit research organization, shown in a report Earlier this year, it was revealed that an estimated 747,000 undocumented immigrants in Florida will pay more than $1.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2022.

The institute concluded that nearly $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes nationwide come from this shadowy workforce, exceeding the cost of the government services these workers receive.

These taxes help fund Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and other federal programs that those working in the United States illegally are prohibited from receiving, the report says.

Homeowners and mixed-status families can also be dragged into networks

American Immigration Council research found that 39% of undocumented immigrant households own their own homes in 2022, and Trump’s deportation ambitions have potentially displaced 1.6 million homeowners.

The report found that many undocumented immigrants also share their lives with U.S. citizens, and as many as four million mixed-status families could be affected.

But any deportation efforts may be diminished as undocumented immigrants leave voluntarily under threat from Trump’s policies.

The council estimated that 20 percent of the 13.3 million people targeted may choose to “self-deport”, effectively fleeing the country. The concept of self-deportation was floated by Republican Mitt Romney at a primary debate in Florida before he became the party’s presidential nominee in 2012.

Trump has promised to begin mass deportations as soon as he takes office in January.

“On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get criminals out,” Trump said at a rally at Madison Square Garden near the end of the presidential race. “I will liberate every occupied and conquered city and town, and we will imprison these brutal and bloodthirsty criminals, then expel them from our country as quickly as possible.”

Florida is among 40 states where undocumented immigrants pay a larger share of their income in taxes.

Partly because of Florida’s 6% sales tax, which affects low-income earners proportionately more, those working illegally must pay an average of 7.9% of their income in state and local taxes, while Florida earners pay only 2.7% of their income. % compared to the top 1% of payers, the institute’s study found.

John Kennedy is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capitol Bureau. He can be reached at: [email protected]or @JKennedyReport in X.

Miami-Dade, in particular, could be ground zero for Trump’s immigration policies.

Deportations could cause ‘real problems in Florida’

Florida’s law leads to smaller-scale migration

Although the plan came in January, Florida leaders deferred to the feds

Homeowners and mixed-status families can also be dragged into networks

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