Donald Trump proposes immigration reform similar to past proposals

For the readers who have been keeping up with presidential candidates and their reform ideas, many can recall Donald Trump’s proposal for the deportation of millions of immigrants.

His proposed plan would take 20 years and between $400 and $600 billion to remove 11.2 million immigrants and their families, including their children born in the United States. Those children are protected and considered legal citizens by the 14th amendment in the U.S. Constitution.

An almost identical incident happened in 1932 during the Great Depression. Counties and cities in America’s Southwest and Midwest forced Mexican immigrants to leave the country over concern that they were taking jobs from the whites, despite their legal right to stay.

Around 500,000 to 1 million immigrants were deported, some voluntarily due to threats of violence; about 60 percent of those who left were legal citizens. Some people lost their possessions and families, and entire neighborhoods around Los Angeles and Houston were left completely empty. The impact is still felt today.