Deporting undocumented workers will cost all of us

By David Haas

Don’t let your government use your tax money to damage your business. Trump’s cabinet picks have made it clear that the incoming administration fully intends to implement a policy of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Here in the Fox Valley, many businesses depend on those immigrants as workers or as customers. Two areas that use many immigrants as workers are dairy farming and construction. It is estimated that at least half of our dairy farm workers are undocumented, and we have all seen roofing crews made up mainly of immigrant workers.

In addition, anyone who has stayed in a hotel recently knows that the people cleaning the rooms are generally immigrants. Those workers on farms, in construction and in hotels are customers of many other Fox Valley businesses. They buy food and clothing. They rent apartments, houses and mobile homes. They buy gas for their cars.

Mass deportation will cost billions of dollars. There is talk of using the military to help to round the people up, and there is talk of building and staffing huge camps to hold the people after they are rounded up. Then, there will be the legal costs of dealing with the hundreds of thousands of court cases that the round-ups will cause. Your taxes will pay for all of that.

If deporting your workers or your customers seems to you to be a bad idea, you should contact your representative in Congress. Don’t let your government use your taxes to damage your business.