Why “Deport them all!” is a stupid and dangerous idea

To many the question of what do we do with all the people in the country illegally is a simple, “Deport them all!” It’s an answer that fits on a bumper sticker, but how would you do it?

For years I’d just shake my head whenever someone said “Deport them all!” It was usually some politician or talking head, so I couldn’t ask them how they would go about it.  Because basically they were asking President Obama to set up a national task force of local, state, and federal agencies whose sole purpose was to go around the country rounding up people.  They wanted President Obama to set that in motion. 

But given that come January Obama will no longer be President, I figured I should update my response.  What I realized is that to “Deport them all!” would really require a nationwide, house by house search.  Now before all you friends of deportation start screaming that “We know where they are,” realize that you can’t put such a process into motion overnight.  There would be months of warning, and plenty of time for the illegals to go to ground or be hidden away by some bleeding heart.

So the military – which would be needed for the manpower – would probably start at the tip of Florida and start moving northward, sealing off county by county and letting the local and state police go house by house.  They’d call everyone who lived there out, and while they searched to make sure nobody was hiding you’d have to show three or four forms of identification to prove that you are you.  And just to be sure, the police would probably also take your photograph and fingerprints. 

And after however many months it would take to cover the entire country, there would be no more people in the US illegally.  And the government would have a detailed data file on where everyone lives. 

I figure the politicians who cry “Deport them all!” fall into one of three categories.  The first are the ones who don’t think of it beyond the bumper sticker stage figuring few voters will as well.  They have no plan – or intention – of actually trying to go through with it.  The second group are the ones who naively think the problem can be solved with minimum resources, as if moving some ten million people is an everyday occurrence.  (Ten million people is over fifty times the number of men who landed on D-Day.)  The third group are the ones who want a listing of everyone in the US for … reasons.

The issue of people in the US illegally is important.  Is it too much to ask we work on the issue intelligently?