Washington, D.C. — Amid talk that President-elect Donald Trump could make good on his campaign promise to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the Center for American Progress estimates that ending DACA would wipe away at least $433.4 billion from the U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, cumulatively over a decade.
“By far, one of the most malicious promises that Donald Trump made throughout his campaign was putting an end to DACA,” said Angela Maria Kelley, Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress and Executive Director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “Though it is not yet certain that he would do so, if the president-elect were to follow through, the effects would not only leave more than 741,000 young DREAMers vulnerable, but our country would also endure the detrimental economic and social impacts. The majority of Americans would rather support efforts to modernize our immigration system than to create a path to fear and deportation among a community that only knows this nation as their home. DACA recipients have come too far—they are integral members of our society who contribute to our economy and social fabric. Revoking DACA is not acceptable. Even as Trump surrounds himself with the likes of Kris Kobach and Sen. Jeff Sessions, the threat against thousands of young immigrants cannot be made real with so much at stake.”
A previous, cutting-edge study by CAP, which this new analysis is based on, estimated that a policy of mass deportation would remove 7 million workers from the U.S. economy, reducing the total number of U.S. workers by nearly 5 percent; wiping a cumulative $4.7 trillion off of the nation’s GDP over a decade; costing the federal government nearly $900 billion in lost revenue over 10 years; and reducing the workforce’s hard-hit industries such as agriculture, construction, and leisure by between 10 percent and 18 percent.
Read the column here: The High Cost of Ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (en Español here)
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