ICYMI: Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia's Houston Chronicle Op-Ed on Trump's Mass Deportation Plan
HOUSTON, TX – Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia (D-TX-29) penned a powerful op-ed in the Houston Chronicle this week, calling out President-elect Trump's plan for mass deportations as both an economic disaster and a moral failure.
In the piece, titled "Mass deportation would be a moral catastrophe—and an economic one," Congresswoman Garcia highlights the devastating financial, social, and moral costs of the proposed policy.
"Trump's mass deportation plan forces us to confront an important question: What kind of nation do we want to be? Are we willing to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into a punitive immigration enforcement scheme that separates families, destabilizes industries, and undermines our economy? Or will we be a nation that comes together to invest in solutions that reform our broken immigration system, strengthen our communities, create greater economic opportunities, and uphold the values that make this country a beacon of hope and opportunity?" Congresswoman Garcia writes.
Drawing on her experience as Houston’s former City Controller, Congresswoman Garcia explains how the financial burden of such a plan would devastate taxpayers. The cost to deport one million undocumented immigrants annually would exceed $88 billion per year, amounting to nearly $1 trillion over a decade. These funds, she argues, could instead be used for critical investments in education, housing, and child care programs.
The op-ed highlights the devastating local impact on Texas and Houston, where undocumented immigrants contribute billions in taxes annually and make up a significant portion of the workforce. Industries such as agriculture and construction would suffer severe labor shortages, which could delay critical infrastructure projects and hamper the region’s ability to recover from natural disasters.
The Congresswoman also emphasizes the human cost of the plan, describing how mass deportations would tear families apart and destabilize communities. She raises concerns about the proposal to use the military for enforcement, warning of the potential harm to service members’ morale and the broader implications for national security.
Find a copy of the op-ed below and HERE.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Mass deportation would be a moral catastrophe—and an economic one
President-elect Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to wield the full power of the executive branch and the Republican-controlled Congress to deliver on his promise of mass deportations.
This plan is not just a logistical nightmare — it’s an economic and moral catastrophe in the making. As someone who once served as the city controller of Houston, managing the finances of the nation’s fourth-largest city, I understand the numbers behind such a massive undertaking. And simply put, the math doesn't add up.
The American Immigration Council estimates that to deport one million undocumented immigrants a year would cost more than $88 billion annually, totaling close to $1 trillion over more than a decade. And these costs only account for the expenses related to arrests, deportations, processing, and removals, leaving out the very real costs to family dependents, employers and taxpayers.
To put this into perspective, this funding could build more than 40,000 new elementary schools, construct nearly 3 million homes to tackle the housing crisis, or fund the Head Start program for almost 80 years. Instead, President-elect Trump’s plan would funnel taxpayer funds into forcibly removing millions of immigrants who contribute immensely to our communities every day. They are our neighbors, our friends and our coworkers. They sit next to us at church and restaurants, and their children are friends with yours at school.
In contrast, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that about $7 trillion could be added to the GDP over the next year, due mostly to an increase in net immigration and its effect on the labor market. Deporting millions of workers would create shortages in critical industries, driving up prices for goods and housing, and costing billions in lost tax revenue. This would harm programs like Social Security and Medicare — programs undocumented immigrants pay into but cannot benefit from.
In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes, including $25.7 billion for Social Security and $6.4 billion for Medicare. Mass deportations would rip a hole in our economy and jeopardize these programs.
In my home state of Texas, nearly 2 million undocumented immigrants contributed roughly $4.9 billion in state and local taxes, the second-highest total in the nation. According to the Migration Policy Institute, immigrants living in the Houston area without legal status made up about 10% of the workforce in 2019. Their contributions are even more significant in certain industries, such as the agriculture and construction sectors.
The Houston construction industry alone employs about 100,000 undocumented immigrants. If these workers were deported, the resulting labor shortages would slam Houston’s construction industry.
In a recent NPR article, Stan Marek, CEO of Houston-based commercial and residential construction company Marek, warned, “It would devastate our industry, we wouldn’t finish our highways, we wouldn’t finish our schools.”
Houston and cities across the country that are prone to natural disasters rely heavily on their construction workforce to recover from hurricanes and floods. Deporting these workers would hamstring recovery efforts and leave vulnerable communities even more exposed.
What do American taxpayers get in return for this colossal expense? Not a single home to address the housing crisis. No additional funding to feed hungry families. And no help for working Americans through initiatives like expanding the Child Tax Credit or improving access to childcare.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, like other Trump allies, falsely argues undocumented immigrants impose an “unconscionable burden on the taxpayers,” claiming they siphon off state and federal resources. However, a 2006 financial analysis by Texas State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Republican, found the opposite. The study concluded that “state revenues collected from undocumented immigrants exceeded what the state spent on services.”
Although Texas officials have yet to update the analysis in nearly 20 years, several nonpartisan organizations have reached the same conclusion. In 2020, a study by the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University concluded, "even if we consider the costs of undocumented immigrants to the state of Texas, the benefits outweigh the costs.” The report estimated that in fiscal year 2018, undocumented immigrants generated $420.9 million more in state revenue than Texas spent on them.
Besides the economic costs, a greater price would be paid — the betrayal of our country’s ideals. This cruel plan would shred our collective moral fabric and shock the conscience of the nation. Families would be torn apart. Breadwinners lost. People would disappear from workplaces, classrooms and churches.
The president-elect has confirmed that he plans to use the military for his cruel operation. Our armed forces take an oath to defend the Constitution; they are trained to deploy worldwide to defend freedom immediately — not to turn against their neighbors. Such actions would significantly affect service members' morale and jeopardize our national security.
Trump’s mass deportation plan forces us to confront an important question: What kind of nation do we want to be? Are we willing to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into a punitive immigration enforcement scheme that separates families, destabilizes industries and undermines our economy? Or will we be a nation that comes together to invest in solutions that reform our broken immigration system, strengthen our communities, create greater economic opportunities and uphold the values that make this country a beacon of hope and opportunity?
For my part, I’ll never stop fighting to pass my American Dream and Promise Act, which provides a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status recipients. These Dreamers were brought to the country as children, without any fault of their own. They’re American in every way but on paper. They deserve to live in peace without fear of deportation.
The answer should be clear. Instead of embracing fear-driven policies that divide us, we must work toward an immigration system and border security policies that reflect our nation’s values and priorities. Anything less is not just a policy failure but an unprecedented abdication of American leadership.
Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia represents Texas’ 29th District, in Houston.