Immigration debateEnding DACA would wipe away at least $433.4 billion from U.S. GDP over a decade

Published 21 November 2016

Amid talk that the incoming administration could make good on a 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.

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 (CAP) 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.”

CAP notes that a  previous study by CAP, which this new analysis is based on, estimated that a policy of mass deportation would remove seven 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 ten years; and reducing the workforce’s hard-hit industries such as agriculture, construction, and leisure by between 10 percent and 18 percent.

— Read more in Ryan Edwards and Francesc Ortega, The Economic Impacts of Removing Unauthorized Immigrant Workers (CAP, 21 September 2016); Interactive Map: Removing Unauthorized Workers Harms States and Industries Across the Country by the CAP Immigration Team and Andrew Lomax (CAP, 21 September 2016)