Immigration raids create fear among communities

Under the US administration's deportation policy, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been conducting aggressive raids on courts, churches, schools and workplaces. The actions have created fear among immigrant communities, with analysts warning of serious economic repercussions.

"With fear and uncertainty at its highest level ever among the immigrant community in Las Vegas, we have decided to temporarily close Broadacres Marketplace out of an abundance of caution and concern for our community," the venue's operators said in a notice on its website.

Broadacres, established in 1977, is a sprawling market with a wide array of tented vendors. It also has food vendors and live music on weekends — with more than 10,000 Google reviews to indicate its popularity.

The notice stated that the market operators "don't want any of our customers, vendors or employees to be detained" or to be "a beacon" for federal raids.

"People are scared, and they don't want to get caught by ICE. Everything is collapsing," vendor Marco Falcon told local TV station 8 News Now.

Falcon, who has sold tools at Broadacres for 30 years, is wondering what he is going to do during the closure — which does not have a specific reopening date planned.

"I will have to reinvent myself because I won't be able to run my business here and I don't know (for) how long it is going to be closed," he said.

Hotels, restaurants, farms, food-packing facilities and other sites where immigrant workers tend to concentrate have seen ICE raids across the country. In a raid on June 17, federal agents arrested 84 unauthorized immigrants at the Delta Downs Racetrack near Vinton, Louisiana.

According to an account by The Christian Science Monitor, even some immigrant workers with legal status stopped showing up at work. Farmer Nick Billman of Donna, Texas, said none of his field hands have shown up since ICE raided two work sites near the Mexican border and arrested 12 immigrant workers for deportation.

"What's happening now is the rumors … that even if you have a work visa or are working on citizenship, you're going to get rounded up with the rest of them," Billman told the Monitor. "It's making people sit at home."

Last week, the United States Supreme Court granted President Donald Trump's request to deport migrants to countries other than their homeland.

Analyses have pointed out that deportation will cost the US economically.

According to a study by the nonprofit American Immigration Council, there are roughly 11 million immigrants without status in the US as of 2022 — 8.3 million of whom were active in the workforce. Another estimated 2.3 million have crossed the southern US border between 2022 and 2024.

Assuming that 20 percent of the undocumented population would "self-deport", the council estimates that the ultimate cost of the total deportation operation would average $88 billion annually, or a total of $968 billion over the course of more than a decade. A large chunk of the money will be spent on building detention facilities.

Besides putting a heavy burden on federal spending, mass deportation will lead to a loss of workers across US industries. The council estimates that this reduction of population would lower US GDP by 4.2 to 6.8 percent and significantly reduce tax revenues for the US government.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com