The King Speaketh: Deport Them All, Even If Legal

 

The King Speaketh: Deport Them All, Even If Legal

White House Post Above: A JOKE or a Joke?

One of the most fundamental starting points for rising autocrats is to rewrite history, censor or punish efforts to contradict this “correct thinking” revisionism, and build policies and platforms that the erase truth where it contradicts this revisionist past. Woke-ism. Slaves benefited from slavery. Ukraine started the war against Russia. A leader who tries to save America cannot break any laws. LGBTQ+ people are destroying America. Whites are the real class of targeted discrimination. There is no such thing as a “loyal” opposition. Undocumented immigrants are mostly murderers, rapists and drug smugglers, sapping governmental benefits, occupying housing citizens need and taking vital jobs away from legitimate American workers. The President has the power to ignore congressional funding mandates. Elon Musk does not run DOGE. All supported by executive orders and falsehoods paraded as factual.

Until recently, Trump’s approval polling has been strong and rising. But the underlying assumptions behind Trump’s effusions are bringing the vultures home to roost. Destroying governmental agencies and programs with absolutely no idea how to replace the vital and necessary aspects of “government.” Watching once die-hard red state voters seek exemptions – from government shutdowns, funding cuts and buyout offers to essential federal workers – brings a “I told you so” smugness to Democrats who lost the November election, albeit by a slim margin… by 1. not listening to disillusioned constituents and 2. attempting to reach younger voters through media they no long watch or listen to.

Rich folks cheered the layoff of 6,700 IRS employees, knowing that such destaffing makes complex audits that generate the most delinquent tax revenues almost impossible. But aside from this oligarchical class and zealous MAGA followers including passionate white Christian nationalists, lots of Trump voters are stunned at how rapidly their world has changed for the worse. Foreign allies, particularly Europe, are beginning to understand that they can never again trust commitments made by the US government. And we are learning how one of our worst enemies, in a rather dramatic flip-flop, is our “friend,” and that the nation struggling for freedom is now our foe. What would have happened in WW2 if FDR suddenly changed sides to support Hitler?

But hitting Americans in their wallets has an immediate reality that comes with “I didn’t really think he meant that” expressions of shock and surprise. To make that point, you do not have to look beyond those undocumented workers who have become the bastion of our workforce (5% of the total US labor force). Not just in taking jobs Americans won’t take at any wage – from digging ditches, stoop labor farmworkers and workers in slaughterhouses to backroom work in hospitality/restaurants – but in leaving even more sophisticated work simply undone. We don’t have to guess what happens. Recent efforts at the state level that illustrate the reality Trump supporters face are well documented, including in a February 18th article written by university academics Francisco Pedraza, Jason Morín and Loren Collingwood, published in the February 18th The Conversation:

“Past state-level immigration enforcement policies offer an idea of what could happen at the national level if Trump were to carry out widespread deportations… For example, a 2011 Alabama law called HB-56 directed local police officers to investigate the immigration status of drivers stopped for speeding. It also prohibited landlords from renting properties to immigrants who do not have legal authorization to work or live in the country. That law and its resulting effects prompted some Alabama-based immigrant workers to leave the state following workplace raids…Their departure wound up costing the state an estimated $2.3 billion to $10.8 billion loss in Alabama’s annual gross domestic product due to the loss of workers and economic output.” Multiply this across the entire nation, and the impact is staggering. Here are some additional excerpts from that article:

“One of President Donald Trump’s major promises during the 2024 presidential campaign was to launch mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization… The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has said that, since January 2025, it is detaining and planning to deport 600 to 1,100 immigrants a day. That marks an increase from the average 282 immigration arrests that happened each day in September 2024 under the Biden administration… The current trend would place the Trump administration on track to apprehend 25,000 immigrants in Trump’s first month in office. On an annual basis, this is about 300,000 – far from the ‘millions and millions’ of immigrants Trump promised to deport.

“A lack of funding, immigration officers, immigration detention centers and other resources has reportedly impeded the administration’s deportation work… The Trump administration is seeking US$175 billion from Congress to use for the next four years on immigration enforcement, Axios reported on Feb. 11, 2025… If Trump does make good on his promise of mass deportations, our research shows that removing millions of immigrants would be costly for everyone in the U.S., including American citizens and businesses.”

Restaurants closing. Construction projects shutting down. Crops rotting in the field. Companies filing bankruptcy. And trust me, the homes this deported workforce will leave behind are not what will have any meaningful impact on our housing shortage. Oh, and by the way, most of these workers do pay taxes and contribute to Social Security/Medicare … although they will never be able to collect on those benefits. Over the years, a significant number of these workers also built up their expertise and have become very capable supervisors. More excerpts:

“Part of the challenge of mass deportations for industries like construction, nearly a quarter of whose workers are living without legal authorization, is that their workforce is highly skilled and not easily replaced. Immigrant workers are particularly involved in home construction and specialize in such tasks as ceiling and flooring installation as well as roofing and drywall work… Fewer available workers would mean slower home construction, which in turn would make housing more expensive, further compounding existing problems of housing supply and affordability.”

Just as an aside, do you really believe that the richest man in the world – who cherishes deregulation and huge tax cuts above all else – gives a rat’s behind concern for the tens of millions of “the rest of us” (the majority of working Americans) who will have to pay thousands of dollars more per family for everyday consumables (from housing to medicines to groceries)? Just add the cost of any new tariffs to this mix and the loss of government research support and direct purchases of stuff like “food” for the military, and ask yourself how much better off you will be. Compare your current life facing increasing costs with the massive savings (from deregulation and tax cuts) to the billionaire class that currently runs this country. And remember, DOGE and Trump’s cabinet appointees have the nation by the throat.

I’m Peter Dekom, and ask yourself if Trump’s slim margin of victory (1.5%) “mandate” and resulting implementation effort fall into that “be careful what you wish (or vote) for category of OMG!!!!”