Top Senate Democrat warns mass deportations ‘would damage our economy and separate American families’
Democratic Senate judiciary committee chair Dick Durbin kicked off the hearing into Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations by warning that such an effort would inhumane, prohibitively expensive and harmful to the US military.
Trump and his advisors have proposed using active-duty troops to deport every undocumented person in the country. In his opening statement, Durbin warned that doing so could harm the military’s readiness.
“Things change when you go from high flying campaign rhetoric to ground … Think about for a moment, using our military for a mass deportation plan. I’m sure it would have a damaging impact on the morale of the troops, rounding up people in their own communities at a time when we’re already facing the most serious recruitment challenge in years,” Durbin said.
“In addition to weakening our military, it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to deport every undocumented immigrant our country. It would damage our economy and separate American families. Instead, we should focus on deporting those who are truly a danger to America, and we should give the rest a chance to earn legal status. They would have to register with the government, certainly pay their taxes and submit to serious background checks.”
Key events
Senate committee opens hearing on harms of mass deportations
The Senate judiciary committee has just started its hearing focused on Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans, and the harms it could do to communities across the country.
In a memo issued yesterday, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients announced Joe Biden’s priorities for his final days in office.
While stressing that the list is non-exhaustive, Zients said the outgoing president would focus on getting federal judges confirmed by the Senate and allocating funding for projects approved by his signature laws, including the Chips Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Zients also said Biden would make one last push to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, and to put Ukraine in “the best position possible” in its war against Russia.
Notable, Zients did not mention any actions having to do with immigration.
Democratic senators call on Biden to take new steps to protect migrants before Trump arrives
With Donald Trump vowing to implement hardline immigration policies including mass deportations as soon as he takes office, a group of Democratic senators is asking Joe Biden to approve new policies they say would allow some migrants to remain in the country.
“Mass deportations would jeopardize the safety and security of millions of mixed-status families, sow deep distrust and fear in the communities we represent, and destabilize the U.S. economy,” seven senators representing Illinois, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii and California said today in a letter to Biden.
“We write now because the window to secure and finalize your administration’s policies is closing rapidly. We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the president-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families.”
Among the steps the group proposes is expanding a program that shields from deportation citizens of certain countries that are determined to he unsafe. They also call to expedite processing of applicants for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which shields from deportation undocumented people brought into the US as children.
Democrats are likely to reiterate their call to the outgoing president at the Senate judiciary committee hearing on Trump’s mass deportation plan that is scheduled to start at 10am. You can read the full letter here.
Trump refers to Canada as state in strange social media post; Democrats to decry harms of mass deportations
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump was having a certain kind of night last night – the sort of night where one mistakes Canada for a state, and prime minister Justin Trudeau for its governor. “It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada. I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!” Trump said on Truth Social. Just 41 days remain until he can write this sort of thing from the White House.
Meanwhile, Democrats are using their final days in control of the Senate to shine a spotlight on the harms Trump’s vows of mass deportations would do to American communities. At 10am, the judiciary committee will convene a hearing on how the president-elect’s signature campaign promises will “separate American families, harm our armed forces and devastate our economy”. The Democrats have summoned a retired major general and an undocumented Philadelphia prosecutor who is temporarily shielded from deportation to testify. The GOP has called the mother of a Maryland woman who was raped and murdered, allegedly by an undocumented man.
Here’s what else is going on today:
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More than 75 Nobel laureates have reportedly signed a letter asking senators not to confirm conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of the health and human services department, after Trump nominated him last month.
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Joe Biden will defend his economic record in a speech from the Brookings Institution in Washington DC at 12.15pm.
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Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, takes questions from reporters at 2pm.
