In his confirmation hearing, former Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said, “My goal in six months is that we are not in the lead story every single day.”
Mullin made a strategic choice of words. The strategy that will now be employed will consist of destabilizing undocumented persons and their families, as well as instilling fear so they might consider self-deporting, as approximately 70,000 have already done.
There are many moral questions in this type of strategy, which is meant to deflect publicity and improve public opinion.
According to the latest Pew Research Center poll, roughly half of Americans still believe the Trump administration is taking excessive action on deportations. Two-thirds of Americans believe that arrests should not be allowed to take place in houses of worship, schools, and hospitals.
For the new director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among other duties, shifting the opinions of half of the U.S. population on this issue will be a considerable challenge.
There are several new methods that will be used to detect and deport mostly non-criminal aliens so as not to be on the front pages of our papers. The latest statistics tell us that 70,000 aliens are in detention, only 14% of whom have criminal records. It should be noted that only 4% of the undocumented population has any criminal record.
The detection and capture of the undocumented will happen using administrative records. During the reign of the short-lived DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), both the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security records of immigrants were obtained without legal authorization.
It appears that more focused house-to-house operations for intercepting the aliens will be conducted. It is certainly a pity that the most compliant undocumented will become the first targets of this new approach, while the criminals who probably never pay taxes or Social Security will remain at large.
There are six other databases that will be used in this process: Medicare or Medicaid, Supplemental Assistance programs, housing, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Education, and even Postal Service records will all be accessed.
The use of this data compromises all of us, since there was no ability to ferret out only the undocumented in obtaining this enormous amount of data on every American citizen.
There are also other means of data collection, especially those leveraging state and local data information, which, since 9/11, has been shared much more than previously.
Crime statistics are now more accessible than before, providing valuable resources for tracking escaped convicts and individuals with extensive criminal histories.
One of the most disturbing elements is the use of bounty hunters who will have access to government data. They will be asked to locate the aliens in the identifying databases. They will receive payment on a per capita basis, particularly for rapid detection and apprehension efforts utilizing artificial intelligence.
Also, intense efforts are being made to induce local and state police to participate in the detention and apprehension of undocumented people.
While sharing information on those who have committed severe felonies seems justified, making local law enforcement officers part of this process will deteriorate the trust necessary between citizens and police in reporting crimes. This is another unwise development.
The most recent data regarding the size of the undocumented population is noteworthy.
The total population as of 2024 was about 14.6 million, but most importantly, the length of stay of these foreign-born workers is amazing. Almost 5 million have been here for 15 years or more, another 3 million for about five years or more, and about 4 million for less than five years. The statistics do show considerable integration in the labor market and into the general society.
As I have said repeatedly, the problem posed by undocumented immigration can be resolved by legalizing workers sorely needed in various areas of our labor force. So far, there has been little positive effect on the labor market in various sectors.
By deporting great numbers of undocumented workers, the government hoped for a positive effect in opening jobs up for American citizens or increasing their wages.
In fact, this has negatively affected the economy, as immigrant workers help stimulate job growth, while the inability to replace these workers leads to inflation and a slowdown in certain industries, especially in the agricultural, health care, and service sectors.
This analysis, however, is for another article. In the meantime, it is important that we recognize the futility of deporting laborers well integrated into our society.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who served as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, is continuing his research on undocumented migration in the United States.