How Trump’s “mass deportation” plan would ruin America

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Support our nonprofit journalism]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     August 8, 2024 Hello friends. I'm Jacob Rosenberg, an articles editor here at Mother Jones. For the [cover story of our latest issue](, we asked reporter Isabela Dias to answer a question: How would Donald Trump’s plan for “mass deportations" actually work? And what would such a project do to America? Her pieces—published yesterday as part of an expansive package documenting [the rise of the Border Patrol](—are a stunning example of how the simple task of taking Trump’s proposals seriously can help us understand what is really happening in America. In these pieces, Isabela shows [why]( Trump hopes to implement mass deportation, [how]( it would work, and [what]( it would do to the United States. In the [first piece](, Isabela dives into how mass deportations would function—and it's an incredible read. Is this program so dystopian that people simply disassociate? Do people actually realize that a presidential candidate is running with the central policy idea of creating mass gulags (as one expert told us)? That Trump is talking about turning the military inward to patrol the US? In the [second piece](, Isabela [documents]( just how much mass deportation could harm America. Mass deportation could “reduce national employment by an amount similar to that experienced during the Great Recession.” It would leave food fallow in the fields, give money to private prisons, target vulnerable neighbors, likely separate more kids, and hurt the very population he claims to want to uplift: the American worker. If you leave the above pieces on deportations stunned, Isabela has another piece today that will help you make sense of Trump's dark vision. After all, it's [the backbone]( of the new intellectual project on the right that led to the pledges of mass deportation. It's a great read deep inside the swamp creatures constructing the ideology behind Trump. One more thing: Many of the arguments against mass deportation, I think, fall too easily into simply saying that immigrants are just good for the economy. It can sound, horrifically, as though support to keep undocumented people in this country (without a pathway to legal status) is largely so that they can be a labor force of peasants. I hate that. I hope Isabela's pieces avoid that impulse and instead show what used to be common sense only a few years ago: Undocumented people enrich this country—in work, in taxes, in the vibrant beauty of human community—and America would be a hellish, sad place if we tried to remove our neighbors en masse. —Jacob Rosenberg Advertisement [Surfshark]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [How Trump’s “Mass Deportation” Plan Would Ruin America]( It would be brutal, costly, and likely illegal. BY ISABELA DIAS MOTHER JONES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE   DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY You’re a Mother Jones Daily reader, so you know the stakes and you know reporting like ours matters so freaking much in these next few months (and beyond). About that: We need [the support of our newsletter readers like never before]( to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our targets and urgently need all hands on deck. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field. Please help with a donation if you can—even just a few bucks helps. A [monthly gift]( would be incredible. [Donate]( [Trending] [The cultural politics behind JD Vance’s obsession with “cat ladies”]( BY JACOB ROSENBERG   [Can Ilhan Omar fend off AIPAC?]( BY ARTIS CURISKIS   [Republican climate change deniers aren't mainstream, but Congress is rife with them]( BY OLIVER MILMAN AND DHARNA NOOR   [Border creep]( BY MELISSA LEWIS AND IAN GORDON Advertisement [Surfshark]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [At the center of the right-wing revival? Hating immigrants]( National conservatives have a very specific view of "nation"—and the Republican party is embracing it. BY ISABELA DIAS Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755