The Economic Impact on Citizens and Authorized Immigrants of Mass Deportation

A research paper published today by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, “The Economic Impact on Citizens and Authorized Immigrants of Mass Deportation” (by Robert Lynch and Michael Ettlinger) looks at a broad swath of current and historic social science and economic research and concludes:

“The deportation of substantial numbers of unauthorized people, most of whom work, would, self-evidently, have substantial negative consequences for those deported and their families. Research shows that mass deportation would also negatively impact the American economy and people in several ways:

• The U.S. economy would noticeably contract as it lost the contributions of unauthorized immigrants.
• Jobs for American workers would decline. Instead of native-born Americans having new work opportunities opened up for them and replacing deported unauthorized workers, research shows that overall employment would fall for the native-born.
• Instead of more competition for workers driving up wages, for most Americans wages would face downward pressure as jobs were lost and the economy shrinks.
• Tax revenues would decline.
• The government would spend many billions of dollars capturing, detaining, processing, and deporting people.
• As domestic production of goods and services dropped, inflation would increase.”