With Donald Trump in the White House and his plans of deporting all undocumented immigrants to their respective countries, there is no peace of mind for Africans at this given time in the US, they are worried about going back to poverty that they have managed to escape. As these deportation plans are slowly unfolding, all foreign-born lives in the United States of America are in absolute fair whether you are a green card holder or in the process of getting your green card or have TPS (temporary protected status) and even some naturalized citizens with some forms of criminal record all are worried about Trump deportation plan as it unfolds.
If these deportation plans come to fruition as planned, it will have a ripple effect that will greatly affect Africa and the US as well, but the impact will affect Africa more. The deportation of Africans from the US will impact a lot of lives in Africa because most Africans who live in the US are responsible for caring for their families they left back home from their financial earnings in the US. These deportation plans will also affect the US immensely, as well. It will definitely touch the fabric of America in all works of life if these deportations go as projected.
The report, which was released in January by ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement), states that the list of cases for trial or people with immigration cases pending that was collected and presented in November 2024 before Donald Trump was inaugurated shows, according to USICE, “there are 1,445,549 noncitizens names on the hands of ICE non-detained docket”. In these numbers, my home country Sierra Leone has 1,563 individuals’ names included on the list. These 1.4 million working individuals with pending legal working cases will possibly face deportation due to the plans of President Donald Trump, as these are one of his campaign promises.
A recent study shows that as of February 2025, there were approximately 13.7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. This is about 27% of the 51.3 million foreign-born people living in the US.
Now, 13 million are on the brink of deportation. For Donald Trump and ICE deporting 13 million people to more than 300 countries around the world will be a tall task; it is expensive. It requires a lot of manpower from the federal government and major help from the states and local government through the corporation of the state police system and not all state will fully corporate with the Trump administration because through the 10th amendment of the US constitution, protect state right by limiting the federal government power to regulate or command a state and this is an important statue that will constrain Trump deportation plans. Because some states highly depend on cheap labor from undocumented immigrants to sustain their local economy, which is why people who study the US economy believe deporting these large numbers of immigrants all at once will definitely touch the FABRIC of the United States of America economically.
Let me give you a brief breakdown of how much immediate impact it will have if this mass deportation goes according to plan and how it will up-end the entire US community.
According to the Joint Economic Committee, “Immigrants are crucial to growing the labor force and supporting economic output. Immigrants have helped expand the labor supply, pay nearly $580 billion a year in taxes, possess a spending power of $1.6 trillion a year, and just last year contributed close to $50 billion each in personal income and consumer spending”. (www.jec.senate.gov/2025). This shows that mass deportation would deliver a massive blow to the US economy because it will clearly reduce the economy and shrink the labor market nationwide and raise costs for all Americans. And future projections show that this will reduce the national economy by 7% by 2028 and push prices up by 9%.
Slowly deporting over a period of time will not have an immediate impact compared to Donald Trump’s plan to implement a once-and-for-all deportation, which would have a ripple effect on the US.
Yes, they have to deport illegal immigrants to fulfill his campaign promise, but at the rate at which he intended to do it will have damaging ripple effects economically and also the law to deport individual without the right documentation but has been better planned at least for the economics of the country.
Now let’s focus on Africa only and Sierra Leone specifically. Migrants from my home country are in so much disturbance because of Trump’s aggressive mass deportation policy he plans on implementing, and it is making us very uncomfortable at this point in the US, to the point that we are not even comfortable attending our traditional public gatherings. Some of us have been in the US for more than a decade without our complete immigration papers but never have to worry about it, as long as you stay out of trouble and making positive contributions to the federal and local government and, more importantly, to our family back home in Sierra Leone because the previous US government administrations have been generously extending our temporary protected status (TPS) and with this status we have been able to support our families we left back home. If the Trump Administration move forward to executes his mass deportation plan it will affect my country significantly because Sierra Leonean who are living in the US as illegal migrants are responsible for their families’ survival in Sierra Leone, not to inflate the numbers too much but each illegal Sierra Leonean that lives in the US is responsible for food clothing and shelter for about six individuals in Sierra Leone. It will be a pity if Trump decides to deport 25% of the roughly 33,000 Sierra Leoneans across the US that are illegal immigrants.
Immigrants in the US from poor nations respect America and want to be here and know the worth of being here. Immigrant from Western European countries come to the US to site seen and return to their countries, they do not come here for work or to seek greener pastures, unlike immigrants from countries like Sierra Leone (Africa), South America and other under developed nations across the world that come to the US with intention to stay, be a good resident, even if their status is illegal, they will find a way to get a job and make positive contribution to the tax system (US Economy) for the long haul.
I don’t know what battle the Trump Administration is fighting. But I think they should focus on issues that matter to the national economy of the US and work gradually on immigration policies and deportation through constitutional due process. It will eliminate deportation panic or chaos because Individuals who were not born in the US are starting to feel foreign due to the way the current administration is aggressively enforcing immigration laws; even immigrants with legal Status are currently uncomfortable in the United States of America.
Home is where your heart is, but I don’t wanna come home yet!