Julian Castro: Mass Deportations ‘Would Decimate the American Economy’

EXCERPT:

CASTRO: "It’s, you know, a problem for the United States, whether you are talking about the ag industry or we're talking about the construction industry, the hospitality industry. The American economy — and people can like it or not, but those are the facts — the American economy is dependent, in part, on the labor of undocumented immigrants. And in certain industries, like agriculture, that’s true in a very big way. And so when we talk about mass deportation, when Trump talks about that, to actually do it would decimate the American economy. On top of that, it’s estimated and I think y’all just showed the figure there, it could cost up to a trillion dollars to do. That means that you would lose the revenue that these folks produce and the positive effect on the economy, and you would also have Americans paying for it by the high cost of mass deportation. On top of that, in the long-term, you have a United States where the birth rate is declining and the number of baby boomers, as a big generation, they're turning 65 and taking out their well-earned Social Security and Medicare, and so you have a need for a greater labor force that these folks in part could help supply. So we’re going in the wrong direction. We need to find a sensible way to have immigration reform, but mass deportation is not the answer. And we’re going to find out the hard way as a country if Trump actually goes forward with it."