Trump’s ‘Dystopian Deportation Scheme’

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Credit…Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Trump’s Taste for Tyranny Finds a Target,” by Jamelle Bouie (column, May 26):

Thank you, Mr. Bouie, for warning us about Donald Trump’s dystopian deportation scheme. On top of the massive social chaos and moral strife this would cause can be added the economic cost.

The cost of building new camps and capturing, housing, transporting and feeding what Mr. Trump referred to as “probably 15 million and maybe as many as 20 million” (though as Mr. Bouie points out, the actual number of undocumented immigrants is estimated at 10.5 million) could be trillions of dollars. That would include the loss of tax revenues, the cost of the disruption to businesses that need the labor, and the impact on businesses, families, local governments and communities that serve these millions of people. The impact to the deficit, the economy and inflation would be catastrophic.

Voters concerned about today’s prices who are considering voting for Mr. Trump will look back and yearn for the current economy and inflation — as will we all.

Daniel Samakow
Venice, Calif.

To the Editor:

Plans for the Trump Gulag may have unintended consequences. According to the Center for Migration Studies, about 45 percent of U.S. agricultural workers are undocumented immigrants. If these people are suddenly yanked from the work force, in a sector already struggling with labor shortages, there will inevitably be a drastic drop in production and a steep rise in consumer prices.

Gilbert Tauber
New York

To the Editor:

Donald Trump boasts that he will deport up to 20 million immigrants, following the example of President Eisenhower and Operation Wetback.

When we look back on that program, we find that the number of immigrants deported was more than a million, the most ever.