Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) said mass deportations could cause a spike in costs for American families, including at the grocery store.
President-elect Trump has repeatedly pledged large-scale deportations of illegal immigrants, which could greatly impact the workforce.
“What we also see, I think, under mass deportations, as you’re going to see further cost for American families going up if you start deporting the agricultural workforce and people in the essential jobs that are putting food on the table, grocery costs are only going to go up,” Barragán said during a Wednesday afternoon MSNBC appearance.
She shared concerns about President-elect Trump’s plan, arguing that large groups of essential workers would vanish under mass deportation efforts.
“These are also people that are providing caregiving services to our loved ones. There’s already a worker shortage, so I think there’s a lot of negative impacts to the economy, to the human toll it’s going to take to families and tearing them apart,” she stated.
“And I think it would be a real catastrophe in also eroding some of the trust that communities have with law enforcement agencies.”
Despite her opposition to Trump and his approach to decreasing inflation, Barragan noted the Democrats’ inability to connect with voters this election cycle.
“I think there’s a lot of work we have to continue to do, and that starts with persuading people why Democrats are fighting for them, how they’re fighting for working class and middle-class families. Just take a look at the Trump cabinet and those that are coming in,” she said.
“They’re billionaires, the wealthy, his friends, they’re not folks that are going to look out for working class and middle-class families. And as we know, mass deportations are causing fear in the Latino community right now.”
Trump appointed Tom Homan, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, to head border security in his administration.
