The realities of mass deportation for Wyoming, America

For decades, our elected leaders have failed miserably at passing and enforcing laws on immigration. Now, plans to deport many of the 11 million undocumented workers here in America could make the situation much worse. It will probably trash the economy, as well. The Mountain West will not be spared from the consequences of this shortsighted policy.

For example, according to the USDA, 41% of farmworkers are not authorized to work in this country. About 1.7 million immigrants work in the food supply chain. Without these workers, food costs will skyrocket and shortages will be likely. Fewer workers means less food and higher prices.

In Idaho, about 90% of the on-farm jobs in the dairy industry are filled by foreign-born workers. Foreign-born labor has been the reality for the dairy industry for decades now. The Idaho Dairymen’s Association predicts significant price increases in milk, cheese and yogurt.

Home construction and repair depend on undocumented immigrants, so count on rising housing costs and more shortages. Similar impacts will be felt in hospitality, health care and other industries across the economy. Places like Jackson and Worland, with a large immigrant workforce, will be especially hard hit.

Almost all Americans favor border security and an end to chaos and uncertainty on immigration. We want immigrants who have committed serious crimes incarcerated or sent home, as current policy mandates. Still, by a 64-35% margin, Americans feel that law-abiding and hard-working immigrants should have a way to stay in the country legally if certain requirements are met.

Unfortunately, the last time Congress passed legislation on immigration was in 1986, sponsored by Wyoming’s own Sen. Alan Simpson. Key to the 1986 law was the provision that: “It is unlawful for any person to knowingly hire, recruit or refer for a fee any alien not authorized to work in the United States.” As evidenced by the 11 million undocumented immigrants working in America today, we have chosen not to enforce this law. If we are going to arrest and deport the workers we invited here, should we not also arrest the people who hired them? The situation is absurd and mass deportations will not fix it.

A slight majority of Americans support the concept of deportation, but a larger majority do not support the reality. They do not want mass deportation if it cuts into the $100 billion these workers pay in taxes, not if it increases the price of goods and homes, not if it will cost hundreds of billions to implement, not if we use the military to do it and especially not if it means separating families. About 4.4 million children born here, legally American citizens, have at least one unauthorized parent. 

For the last 48 years, Congress has done virtually nothing to address the immigration issue, even though a majority of Americans and even a majority in Congress supported two major attempts.

In 2013, a bipartisan compromise bill on immigration passed in the U.S. Senate by a supermajority. It would have won easily in the House of Representatives and President Obama was ready to sign it, but a few hard-right representatives stymied the will of a majority of Congress and the American people by keeping the reform bill from coming to a final vote.

If enacted, the bill would have made it possible for law-abiding immigrants to gain legal status and maybe even citizenship if they passed a background check, had a job, higher education or served in the military. It would have increased border security by adding up to 40,000 border patrol agents. It also would have advanced talent-based immigration. It had a target of stopping 90% of illegal border crossings and required use of an E-Verify system to ensure that employers only hire documented workers.

Many of the problems at the border today would not exist if the 2013 bill was allowed to pass. A similar compromise reached in early 2024 failed to pass when President-elect Donald Trump opposed the bill. Trump did not want progress on immigration so he could use it as a campaign issue. 

I find it cruelly ironic and immoral that the very people who stopped immigration reform in the past are now pushing an inhumane, unrealistic and very expensive deportation plan that will likely have a horrible impact on our economy.