Mass Deportation: How it’s crushing our country

1942, Netherlands. A significant date in the history of many people. The year when World War II’s deportations first began. The small action that seemed harmless at the time quickly turned into countless families being split, trauma rising, the economy crashing, and millions of deaths. During that time, the U.S. was deporting and putting Japanese Americans into concentration camps. Nearly 80 years later, in January 2025, the day President Donald Trump took office, he signed many executive orders, one of them being the start of mass deportation and discrimination that many families face. As of July 17th, only seven months into the deportations, over 56k people have been deported, only 28% having criminal convictions. Similar to World War II’s deportations, people of certain backgrounds are targeted, non-white people, people from South America, and people from minorities are targets of ICE. Mass deportation are hurting everyone, whether you’re being deported, deporting, or living on Earth.

A lot of people and families suffer from health issues because of these physically and mentally draining times. Not only is mass deportation negatively impacting people getting deported, but also their families and loved ones. KFF, a research website specializing in health policy, states, “research shows that immigration enforcement raids and family separations can lead to worsened physical and mental health of both parents and children of deported parents.” Completely innocent children suffer from these problems when being split from their families, all because their parents wanted a better life for the family. Brookings gives us statistics on children at risk of deportation: “A large majority (85%) of the 5.62 million citizen children at risk of a household deportation are younger than 15.” As a 15-year-old facing these issues, I understand how difficult and chaotic it is to have the constant risk of being ripped away from all I know.

Families believe lies that they are told and end up losing their homes, careers, friends, and futures. ICE agents and people who are pro-deportation are willing to lie and break trust to get immigrants out. In President Donald Trump’s Arizona debate speech in 2016, he said, “For those here today illegally who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and only one route: to return home and apply for re-entry.” This statement is improbable since, according to ICE’s website, “Bars to reentry are penalties for violating U.S. immigration law. Being barred from reentry means the U.S. government won’t let you come back into the U.S. — even for a short visit. You can be barred from reentry for three years, 10 years, or even permanently.” This means that if an undocumented immigrant self-deports in hopes of returning and getting legal status, they’ll be faced with disappointment and be banned from entering the U.S. for years, if not for life.

Although many people, along with Trump, believe that immigrants are detrimental to our economy, it’s the opposite. President Trump claims that “While there are many illegal immigrants in our country who are good people, this doesn’t change the fact that most illegal immigrants are lower-skilled workers with less education who compete directly against vulnerable American workers,” but his statement is incorrect because according to the U.S. Congress website, “although immigrants increase the supply of labor, they also spend their wages on homes, food, TVs and other goods and services and expand domestic economic demand. This increased demand, in turn, generates more jobs to build those homes, make and sell food, and transport TVs.” The Congress also states that, “in many cases immigrants appear to complement American-born workers rather than replacing them.” With these statements, we can tell that instead of hurting the economy and “taking jobs,” immigrants are helping and supporting the current work-life of Americans. Mass deportation is hurting our economy, not only with the money being spent but also by taking away many jobs that immigrants do. Since mass deportation is so sudden and unexpected, the workforce in which a deported individual works will suffer, along with the economy. NASW states, “Economically speaking, the sudden removal of a substantial portion of the workforce could lead to labor shortages and negatively impact industries reliant on immigrant labor.”

Experts on Amnesty, a website against mass deportation, state the inhumane conditions of detention centers: “We are hearing shocking reports of swarms of mosquitoes, maggot-infested food, lack of showers, and extreme temperatures. It is unclear if secure phone lines exist for people to reach out to lawyers.” KFF‘s researchers also comment on detention centers: “Prior experience suggests that immigrants held in detention facilities may not receive sufficient health care and face unsafe conditions.” An 18-year-old Brazilian student in MA, Marcelo Gomes da Silva, was detained and put into harsh conditions, saying: “That place… It’s not good… ever since I got here, they had me in handcuffs… I was in a room with a bunch of 35-year-old men, and those rooms were small… I haven’t showered in six days.” Marcelo was detained on his way to a sports practice; his main concerns as a young, innocent person were “his family, whether or not his volleyball team won their semi-final game, what would happen with his final exams this week, and the fact that he missed his girlfriend’s high school graduation.”

Even if you don’t think anything about mass deportation impacts you, it does. Whether you’re a student with an undocumented peer or an office worker with an immigrant co-worker, it impacts their families, people’s well-being, the economy, and most importantly, our country. No one should ever be treated like those people behind bars without their human rights. No child should be dropped off at school by their parents only to be told that they were taken into custody on the way to pick-up. No parent should wonder if their child will return home from an extracurricular activity. If this cruelty and unfairness doesn’t stop soon, our country and its morals will crash. The Constitution is being violated, and so is our country.