"They could build new factories and take manufacturing jobs back from foreign competitors as well as expel every person who, in their view, didn't belong in the United States. They could live in a golden age of plenty and seal it away from others outside the country with a closed, hardened border. Trump told Americans that there were no trade-offs."
"In reality, this was a fantasy. Americans could have a strong, growing economy, which requires immigration to bring in new people and fill demand for labor, or they could finance a deportation force and close the border to everyone but a small, select few. It was a binary choice. Theirs could be an open society or a closed one, but there was no way to get the benefits of the former with the methods of the latter."
"As promised, Trump began a campaign of mass deportation. Our cities are crawling with masked federal agents, snatching anyone who looks illegal to them a bit of racial profiling that has, for now, been sanctioned by the Supreme Court. The jobs, however, haven't arrived. There are fewer manufacturing jobs than there were in 2024, thanks in part to the president's tariffs and, well, his immigration policies."
A political promise claimed simultaneous economic revival and mass deportation with no trade-offs. That promise proved unrealistic because sustained economic growth depends on immigration to supply labor and fuel investment. A program of mass deportation has been enacted, with federal agents detaining people and using racial profiling that courts have, for now, allowed. Expected manufacturing gains have not materialized; manufacturing employment fell after tariffs and restrictive immigration measures. A high-profile detention of hundreds of South Korean workers at a Georgia battery plant demonstrated how harsh immigration enforcement can disrupt operations, deter investment, and undermine growth.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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