LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It remains President Donald Trump’s most oft-repeated campaign pledge from 2024: the largest mass deportation in American history.
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“We have no choice: Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said at a Jan. 27, 2024 rally in Las Vegas. “We have no choice, because this is not sustainable.”
And, true to his word, Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 declaring an emergency at the southern border, ordering a military response, building additional border walls and using drones to prevent illegal crossings.
He's signed more orders in the months since, targeting so-called sanctuary jurisdictions and targeting local jurisdictions that don't cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, among more than 140 others.
The Trump promise
While the deportation efforts thus far aren’t the largest ever seen, the government is on a path to fulfill Trump’s promise, according to Michael Kagan, who runs the UNLV Immigration Clinic.
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“I don’t think we still have something that we would really call true mass deportation yet, but they are putting pieces in place that will build up to that,” Kagan said. “We’re seeing increasingly indiscriminate immigration enforcement.”
That includes canceling student visas at UNLV, as well as deporting people who the government claims are gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Issac Velazquez, a formerly undocumented student at UNLV who earned his citizenship by serving in the U.S. military, said he’s not surprised at Trump’s rhetoric.
“This is something that, historically, the United States has done since its founding,” Velazquez said. “I would say, being a history major here in the University of Nevada, I have learned that a lot of this rhetoric is not new. The United States tends to bully people that cannot defend themselves, especially when there is some sort of economic downfall or Americans are struggling…. But what does surprise me is, is that we have had this happen before, but yet Americans seem not to understand that this does more harm than good.”
For others, however, such as Las Vegas immigration attorney Peter Ashman, the rhetoric and reality of deportation is the point.
“And I think a lot of is is designed to probably get people to say, ‘You know what, it’s just not worth it anymore. I’m tired of looking over my shoulder. I’m tired of worrying about, you know, why is that van parked in front of the house?’”
Ashman said he has a client who is in the United States illegally, but who has made a very successful life here. “He’s worked incredibly hard, then he’s thinking of just leaving, just what’s the point anymore? Because of the uncertainty, just worrying about, when is that knock on the door going to happen?”
Ashman says the loss of immigrants will have impacts to the community, not only in terms of workforce, but in terms of culture. Kagan says he worries that foreign students who might otherwise have come to the United States to study will choose universities in Europe or elsewhere instead.
And the economic consequences could be dire, too.
Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, says undocumented immigrants paid $500 million in taxes in Nevada in 2022 alone.
“There is no account to replace for lost revenue and lost tax revenue, either,” Haseebullah says. “So if you want to destroy the economy, the Southwest is going to get hit largely, in my opinion, probably the hardest in the country.”
Not only that, but Haseebullah says he’s concerned that community groups and attorneys who represent immigrants will be targeted as well. “It seems that there, there has been intent to create fear and panic within immigrant communities, but it’s also been to create fear and panic within institutions, organizations, community centers and those types of societal support programs that serve immigrant communities,” he said.
Cost of undocumented immigration
But Republican businessman Rafael Arroyo, who narrowly lost a bid for Assembly District 41 last year, says there is also a cost to undocumented immigration that we’re already paying.
“I think that what’s happened is it’s been so overwhelming, right?” Arroyo said. “When you’re talking about millions and millions of people, I mean, you have to put a stop. You can’t take care of everyone. We’re already in massive amounts of debt. … I mean, we’re not turning these people away from a hospital if they’re hurt. Their children go to school here. So there is a lot of money that’s involved in supporting even the people that are not committing serious crimes, but it is a crime to come into the United States illegally and I think people have to recognize that.”
Ashman says he agrees with the idea of deporting people who have committed crimes, saying no one wants criminals — whether foreign or native born — in their communities. (Kagan, however, says immigrants who break the law should serve their sentences here, since there’s no guarantee they won’t be freed in their home country after they’re deported.)
Indiscriminate or targeted deportation?
But Kagan also argues that a targeted deportation effort — say, removing violent criminals first — is incompatible with a promise of mass deportation. “They cannot exist together,” he said. “Mass deportation is, by definition, indiscriminate and the examples he [Trump] was giving like Operation Wetback from the 1950s was incredibly indiscriminate.”
Kagan adds: “Mass deportation means that people in your life, in my life, will be taken away. Families will be broken. People, colleagues you work with every day will be gone. Parents of kids that your kids play soccer with will be gone. There will be ripple effects throughout our economy and our society and our families and our schools, and that is what mass deportation is.”
Ashman agrees, saying the government should adopt a more targeted approach.
“I don’t think [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] should be unleashed to go after everybody because they don’t have legal status in this country,” he said. “I think the idea of giving them the discretion to sort of enforce on a case by case basis and maybe take a pass on people who aren’t harming us.”
A pathway to citizenship
Chuck Muth, a Republican activist, agrees, saying there should be a pathway to allow people who came here illegally to stay, so long as they have clean records. But first, he said, Democrats who advocate for immigrants need to acknowledge that people here without permission have broken the law, and don’t have a right to remain.
“We need to find a path to allow them to stay here, giving them legal status,” he said. “The holdup in Congress is that the Democrats insist on giving them immediate citizenship and the right to vote, and folks like myself on the right are saying, ‘look, I think there’s a reason why we can find in certain cases, we allow them to say with a legal status, but without automatically granting citizenship.’”
Eventually, Muth says, after a waiting period, immigrants can apply for citizenship, go through the naturalization process and earn voting rights.
Notably, Velazquez says much the same thing.
“I honestly believe that Americans are tired, and the reason I believe they’re tired is because they keep hearing the same rhetoric,” he said. “So I think it’s gotten to the point where they’re just like, well, let’s solve it one way or another. But I could almost — or at least I’d like to hope and I’d like to believe that the majority of Americans would be OK with some sort of path to citizenship or maybe a reform of the system we have, rather than just a mass deportation.”
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