By Jeffrey Heng, Co-Opinion Editor and Columnist
In my Spanish class, I watched “30 Days” and “Which Way Home,” two films part of the AP Spanish Language curriculum that followed the grueling journeys of Mexicans who risked crossing the Mexico-U.S. border to make a living for their families. But with the difficulties of obtaining U.S. citizenship and the Trump administration’s plans of mass deportation, this dream becomes nearly unattainable.
“There’s always the argument of ‘Is it right? Is it wrong?’ We hear about that in the news of immigration,” Spanish teacher Stacy Katz said. “But I think sometimes living in the United States, especially if you were born here, it’s easy to take for granted some of the opportunities that we have and be unaware of how other people are living. And so that movie, that documentary I think they show the human side of the story and why people fight so hard to come here.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the U.S. agency under the Department of Homeland Security responsible for upholding “counterterrorism,” a term defined by the agency’s website as ‘protecting people by combating unlawful violence.’ Through enforcing restrictive immigration laws undocumented immigrants (UIs) — those who have no documentation or legal status to live in the U.S. — ICE officers can detain those who are undocumented.
According to its website, ICE deported more than 270,000 UIs in 2024, the highest number observed in the past decade. With President Donald Trump revoking an October 2021 policy that prohibited arrests at “sensitive locations” such as schools and churches, this number is likely to spike in upcoming years.
Strikingly, an October 2024 report by the American Immigration Council, a non-profit advocating for immigration reform, found that in the time it would take to deport the estimated 13.3 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in a decade-long timespan, it would cost the U.S. nearly one trillion dollars — money that would be equivalent to building 2.9 million homes.
Yet, an April 2024 poll conducted by the news organization Axios found 51% of Americans supported mass deportations of UIs. When respondents were asked about their concerns of illegal immigrants, the most cited reasons were increased crime rates and violence (21%), additional costs to taxpayers (18%) and risk of terrorism and national security (17%).
But, these are misconceptions: Data from the Cato Institute, a public policy research organization, shows that in 2015, UIs have lower homicide conviction rates (2.4 per 100,000) than native-born Americans (2.8 per 100,000).
Likewise, a 2024 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that UIs paid $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022, revenue that would go towards funding public services and programs.
Instead of feeding into the deportation machine, policymakers must take action by protecting all their residents — even those who may not be authorized to be here but have been vital to America’s economy and identity.
“We saw in class how you obtain a visa, and the long process that you have to go through having a sponsor in the United States: I think it’s very hard to be able to get through those steps,” Katz said. “And although I understand the laws surrounding immigrating to the United States, there’s the humanity side of it as well.”
On Jan. 28, ICE agents detained seven undocumented North Philadelphia residents, the first of many raids we can expect in the city. To say ICE counters terrorism when it deters those looking for sanctuary contradicts its promise to protect the people. When undocumented families are torn apart and are not provided reparations to find a clear path towards citizenship, it’s obvious that this country fails to be united. For us in Philly, you can’t help but question the prestige of being nicknamed the “City of Brotherly Love” when that love is not reciprocated to the neighbors we claim to protect.
Jeffrey Heng can be reached at [email protected].
