As we move into the final part of the cycle, Donald Trumpwho has made his entire candidacy a referendum on immigration, will not discuss his mass deportation plans in detail — neither at a recent Univision town hall nor his only debate with Kamala Harris. This is a story.

Since those debates, Trump has done just that bent deeper in mass deportations, while Harris aggressively made his case about how he would help Latinos economically, a telling reset to reach Latino voters in the final weeks of the election.

Trump knows that explaining what mass deportations entail would be a disaster for him. Yes, some surveys show an alarming increase in support for mass deportations. However, when voters are aware of the cost and the human cost it would have in terms of family separation and removal of decades-long residents, mass deportation becomes politically toxic.

Mass deportations would be ugly; would require local law enforcement to work with federal law enforcement to remove law-abiding residents, many of whom have woven their lives and livelihoods into the fabric of their communities. It would separate mixed-status families, leaving children who have been here their whole lives without parents. We’re still dealing with the aftermath of the last time the Trump administration separated families at our southern border — one of the ugliest moments in our country’s modern history.

We have to bring this story to life for voters: New research from the Valiente Action Fund found it’s hard negative anti-Trump ads showing how his policies would separate families could increase support for Kamala Harris with a wide range of voters, including men, whites, blacks, Latinos, liberals, moderate-liberals and moderates. This is a convincing operation that shores up the softer parts of the Democratic coalition while improving Harris’ chances with swing voters in the suburbs.

“We need to tell this story and not let Trump define immigration for our country,” said Valiente Action Fund Executive Director Maria Rodriguez. “When we identify the details of what Trump is proposing with mass deportations, as he did in the 2025 Playbook Announcement, and tell the story of what he intends to do on immigration, it excites voters.”

Beyond the human cost, mass deportation would also have catastrophic economic costs. Not only would mass deportations not reduce costs for average households, they could raise taxes for most Americans. According to the nonpartisan American Council on Immigration:

O mass deportation a 1 million people a year it could cost $88 billion annually. It would require an unprecedented acceleration of llaw enforcement personnel, detention capacity, immigration courtrooms and flight capacity.

This amount of money does not currently exist in the federal budget. So to finance such a large-scale effort, Trump would likely have to either raise taxes on American households or steal funds from other social service coffers, such as Social Security or Medicare.

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Ironically, on the economy — the issue Trump claims would benefit from his mass deportation plan — Kamala Harris has a remarkable success story, with record job creation, small business growth and health care coverage for Latinos. And what he plans to do in his first term as president is even more impressive.

Harris proposes creating opportunities for Latinos in the workforce through training programs, including doubling registered apprenticeships and eliminating unnecessary college education requirements, which would benefit about 2 million workers. It supports veterans training and employment programs. It will allow apprentices and registered construction workers to write off their tool and equipment costs – a crucial saving for contractors and small business owners as they work to rebuild the country’s housing stock and modernize our aging infrastructure.

These are all real economic policies that would help Latinos and the country, not fascist fantasy of mass deportations.

If elected, Trump will impose tariffs on everything from food to gasoline, raising costs for average Latino family with nearly $4,000. Cut support for Latin American small businesses to give big tax breaks to his corporate friends – eliminate the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and separate families.

On this last point, mass deportation is essentially not just politically toxic, it’s wrong. Americans have fought wars to stop these policies from being implemented, and we must help them remember the values ​​that are fundamental to our country. It helps that Trump’s fascist plan also undercuts our country’s economic interests. Voters can prevent this, but only if we show up and vote in November.