A new report found New York State will face massive economic and fiscal effects from mass deportations.
The report showed industries such as hospitality, child care, farming and construction will face workforce shortages due to mass deportations. It noted New York will lose out on more than $3 billion in taxes from undocumented immigrants.
David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of the Immigration Research Initiative, said there are ways the state can reduce the harsh impacts.
"The state doesn't need to be part of the enforcement of federal immigration laws," Kallick pointed out. "It's very important for the state to say, 'We're not going to allow city and state law enforcement agents to get drawn into this process of detaining people for immigration or turning people over to ICE and immigration authorities.'"
Although President Donald Trump is determined to carry out mass deportations, there has been little evidence of their benefits. The report indicated giving undocumented immigrants a path to legal status would increase local and state tax revenue by $900 million. Another effect mass deportations would have is population loss for upstate New York municipalities, reversing economic gains made in recent years.
Carrying out mass deportations may present logistic challenges but even losing a small portion of New York's undocumented population comes with economic consequences, such as higher living costs for all New Yorkers.
Emily Eisner, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, said the state cannot handle losing so many workers.
"We might see fewer child care facilities offering fewer spots for kids, or we might see reductions in how many older adults or disabled adults can get home health care," Eisner emphasized. "Which will then place burden on family members in both of those cases."
She added the construction industry would face similar challenges with costs rising and fewer projects being completed and mass deportations would only exacerbate the state's ongoing housing and child care shortages.
Small businesses would be affected too, because 1 million undocumented immigrants nationally run businesses, which generated more than $27 billion in 2022.
