Iowa politicians point out some holes in Donald Trump’s immigration plans.
By Maria Curi
President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration numbers are not adding up, according to Iowa politicians, experts, and community leaders interviewed by The Daily Iowan.
On Sunday, Trump told CBS’ Lesley Stahl on “60 minutes” that 2 million to 3 million immigrants in the United States are probably violent criminals who will be deported or incarcerated under his presidency.
“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminals and have criminal records — gang members, drug dealers — we have a lot of these people — probably 2 million, it could even be 3 million — we’re getting them out of our country, or we’re going to incarcerate, but we’re getting them out of our country that are here illegally,” Trump said.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, there were 42.4 million immigrants in the United States in 2014 and more than 11.7 million are Mexican, accounting for 28 percent of the total foreign-born population — by far the largest immigrant-origin group in the country.
In 2016, the U.S. admitted a record total of 38,901 Muslim refugees — making up 46 percent of the nearly 85,000 refugees who entered the country in that period — according to the Pew Research Center.
In the wake of the presidential election, political leaders across Iowa weighed in on what a new Trump presidency will mean for immigrants.
“I wonder where he got that [number] from? That’s grossly overrated,” said Maria Bribriesco, a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa.
The 2013 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report shows that in fiscal 2013 6-in-10 immigrants deported had been convicted of a state or federal crime.
According to the Pew Research Center, of all those deported, 33 percent had committed at least one felony — crimes ranging from murder to failure to appear in court, or at least three misdemeanors. That means 152,000 immigrants were deported but did not have a criminal conviction. Another 95,000 were deported and had a criminal record with no more than two misdemeanors.
Johnathan Ortega, a member of the Republican Party of Iowa, said he expects Trump to send back only those who are criminals — not necessarily guilty of violent crimes and including those who have entered into the United States illegally numerous times — but not those who have been here for a long time and pay taxes.
“It won’t be a big number [of criminal deportations],” Ortega said. “But those who have been deported before and tried to come multiple times need to go back especially.”
Bribriesco said that Trump’s exaggeration of violent criminal immigrants in the U.S. is a political strategy to appeal to his supporters and said that ultimately, his campaign rhetoric was just to get elected and will not be put into action.
“As a businessman, he realizes immigrants from all over the world enrich this country, and I’m not concerned that he’ll put into action what he said during his campaign,” Bribriesco said. “Not because of humanitarian concerns but because of bottom-line concerns. The economy will hurt under mass deportation.”
According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, at the national level, small businesses owned by immigrants generated more than $776 billion annually.
Will Rogers, the Republican Central Committee chairman of Polk County — the county with the largest number of Latinos in Iowa according to the State Data Center of Iowa — said he is confident that Trump will secure the border somehow.
“There are a number of different mechanisms that will make it make it more secure, but what that entails we don’t know yet,” Rogers said.
As outlined on Trump’s website, his immigration plan entails building a wall paid for by Mexico at the U.S.-Mexican border, tripling the number of ICE agents, suspending visas from areas where “adequate screening cannot occur,” and ending sanctuary cities.
Sanctuary cities are state and local jurisdictions around the United States that have policies designed to protect unauthorized immigrants by limiting the extent of which government employees are required to help the federal government and ICE on immigration matters.
West Liberty City Councilor Cara Calvin McFerren said that from an elected official’s point of view, sanctuary cities should be left to the sentiment of the people and what they want. A councilor of the first city in Iowa in which Latinos are the majority population, McFerren said she expects more regulation and less compromise from Trump but that it is too soon to tell how effective his government will be.
“You know what, it might not be what I agree with but who knows what will happen?” McFerren said. “I don’t want to come at it with anger or fear, I want to be rational and do my part as best I can in city government.”
Tom Henderson, the Democratic Central Committee chairman of Polk County, said he does not know how Trump will deport 2 million to 3 million immigrants and pointed to President Obama’s deportation record.
“I don’t know how you get 2 to 3 million, but I guess he’ll figure it out,” Henderson said. “Obama has been aggressive and has never reached that number.”
Data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security show that the annual number of deportations reached a record 419,384 in 2012 under Obama. According to the Pew Research Center, 1.6 million immigrants were deported under Obama between 2009 and 2012; during all eight years of President George W. Bush’s administration, 2 million immigrants were deported.
Even though Henderson said he would like to see a more reasonable solution, ultimately, politicians at the local level have to abide by federal law no matter what it is.
“If the federal government is in charge — rightly or wrongly — and want this deportation, then we have to abide by the rule of law at the federal level,” Henderson said.
Jose Zacarias, a member of the West Liberty School Board and former West Liberty city councilor, said Trump has awaked the ugliest part of American society, and it can be seen in West Liberty’s schools, where students are scared their parents will be deported.
“I know that we have some undesirable people, and when you are in a country, you have to obey the law — if you don’t, then you have to get out,” Zacarias said. “But I am from Mexico, and my conviction is that most immigrants who come here don’t come to cause trouble — they come in search of opportunity, and they come to better themselves.”
