Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Dick Durbin has warned that mass deportation would be inhumane, prohibitively expensive and harmful to the US military.
This came as the Senate judiciary committee held a hearing focused on Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans, and the harms it could do to communities across the country.
Trump and his advisers have proposed using active-duty troops to deport every undocumented person in the country. In his opening statement, Durbin warned that doing so could harm the military’s readiness.
“Things change when you go from high flying campaign rhetoric to ground … Think about for a moment, using our military for a mass deportation plan.
“I’m sure it would have a damaging impact on the morale of the troops, rounding up people in their own communities at a time when we’re already facing the most serious recruitment challenge in years.”
Dick Durbin
He stressed that aside weakening the military, it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to deport every undocumented immigrant the country, adding that it would damage the economy and separate American families.
He suggested that the focus should be on deporting those who are truly a danger to America, and “we should give the rest a chance to earn legal status.” “They would have to register with the government, certainly pay their taxes and submit to serious background checks,” Durbin added.
Republican Senator Promises ‘Transformational Border Security Bill’
Meanwhile, the top Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, Lindsey Graham, said that as soon as the party takes control of the chamber next year, they’ll get to work on sending Donald Trump legislation to implement hardline immigration policies.
“In January of 2025, the Republican Senate will make its top priority a transformational border security bill that will be taken up and passed by the budget committee, increasing the number of bed spaces available to detain people instead of releasing them, increasing the number of Ice agents to deal with people who should be deported, finish the wall and put … technology on the border, so we’ll have operational control of the border. That’s going to be our top priority.”
Lindsey Graham
Trump and the Republicans have plenty of other priorities once they take power in Washington, but Graham said that border security was what they would address first. “I want to cut taxes. We will cut taxes. But as to the Senate, transformational border security goes first through reconciliation,” Graham said, referring to the parliamentary procedure that will allow Republicans to circumvent a filibuster by Democrats in the Senate.
Graham vowed, “We’re going to start sending people out of the country that present a threat to us and should never been here to begin with.”
Additionally, Republican Senator John Cornyn, the ranking member on the judiciary committee’s immigration subcommittee, gave a hint of which undocumented immigrants would be deported first.
Cornyn asserted that the American people are “fed up with the lawlessness at the southern border, and in November, they tasked Republicans the job of cleaning it up, and that we will do.”
“We have a big job ahead of us, no doubt. But by one estimate, there are already 1.3 to 1.6 million migrants who are under final orders of deportation, who are still in the country.
“That strikes me as a good place to start, people who have been entitled to full due process and hearing in front of an immigration court and are under final orders of deportation. What are they still doing here?”
John Cornyn
However, the Senate hearing on mass deportations ended on a bitter note, with a series of back-and-forths between Republicans on the committee and a majority witness invited to testify about the cost and economic impact of removing millions of immigrants from the labor force.
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