Trump’s plan to kill DACA could cost the economy $433 billion in lost growth

A new study has found it could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his promise to kill DACA, an Obama program that allows some young undocumented immigrants to temporarily live and work here.

If Trump ends the program, some 645,145 workers would lose their work permits, costing the U.S. economy $433.4 billion in lost growth over a decade, according to analysis by the Center for American Progress.



“At a time when the U.S. economy is finally emerging from the Great Recession, a loss of this magnitude is something the nation cannot afford,” Philip E. Wolgin, managing director for the Immigration Policy team at the Center for American Progress, wrote in his report.

Wolgin calculated his estimates based on extrapolations from a previous study by the Center for American Progress, which found that deporting 11 million unauthorized immigrants would cost the U.S. economy slightly more than $4.7 trillion over a decade.

Trump rose as a candidate on anti-immigrant rhetoric that was tainted at times with flourishes of bigotry. His “deport-them-all” campaign promise was manifestly impractical and would, according to the right-of-center American Action Forum, take 20 years to accomplish, cost up to $600 billion (good luck getting that approved by Congress) and shave $1 trillion from GDP. It’s hard to see how inflicting that kind of damage on a society built on immigration would “make America great again.”

But Trump also promised to “immediately terminate” Obama’s DACA and DAPA programs, which have been vociferously opposed by the GOP. As president, Trump could easily end both by revoking the administrative orders Obama signed to create them. He hasn’t sent any post-election signals yet on the programs’ fate, but picking Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) — a leading voice in the Senate for more deportations — to head the Justice Department doesn’t bode well.

More than 741,000 young undocumented immigrants have benefited from Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides renewable two-year visas to qualifying immigrants.

“By far, one of the most malicious promises that Donald Trump made throughout his campaign was putting an end to DACA,” said Angela Maria Kelley, Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress and Executive Director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

“Though it is not yet certain that he would do so, if the president-elect were to follow through, the effects would not only leave more than 741,000 young DREAMers vulnerable, but our country would also endure the detrimental economic and social impacts. The majority of Americans would rather support efforts to modernize our immigration system than to create a path to fear and deportation among a community that only knows this nation as their home. DACA recipients have come too far — they are integral members of our society who contribute to our economy and social fabric. Revoking DACA is not acceptable. Even as Trump surrounds himself with the likes of Kris Kobach and Sen. Jeff Sessions, the threat against thousands of young immigrants cannot be made real with so much at stake.”

CAP notes that a previous study by CAP, which this new analysis is based on, estimated that a policy of mass deportation would remove seven million workers from the U.S. economy, reducing the total number of U.S. workers by nearly 5 percent; wiping a cumulative $4.7 trillion off of the nation’s GDP over a decade; costing the federal government nearly $900 billion in lost revenue over ten years; and reducing the workforce’s hard-hit industries such as agriculture, construction, and leisure by between 10 percent and 18 percent.

Assessing the Economic Impacts of Granting Deferred Action Through DACA and DAPA: https://www.americanprogress.org/iss...daca-and-dapa/

We're here to stay dammit I can feel it. We are a force to be reckoned with! Everyone pat yourself on the back one time. Nigga we made it

Im new to posting on this forum guys, but I have visited this place for many years reading articles and gathering info about what a lot of you are thinking. I'm amazed at the fact that nobody has calculated how much the government has invested on our education so far. In my case, I have a bachelors and a masters degree in engineering. I moved to the US before I started High School, so I spent a total of 10 years in school here. I went around the web and found figures about how much does the government pay to cover each student a year. In a period of 10 years which is the minimum time each of us has been here, the US has spent $89,129,000,000 in our education. I myself pay $35,000 on taxes every year working in Silicon valley. So deporting us makes absolutely no sense economically speaking.

I have made plans to move to Canada and work there if my permit is cancelled or if it runs out. It pains me to see how other countries are so welcoming to professionals except the US. I have been in charge of helping hiring new candidates at my job and there are just not enough engineers in the country to sustain tech companies. We have gone a whole year without filling 6 positions we need. Oh well, hopefully Trump comes to his senses before it's too tale.

Stay strong everyone.

We need people like you here. You give DACA a good name.