President-elect Donald Trump's newly appointed border enforcer is weighing a hotline for citizens to report undocumented crime. The plan, which may encompass workplace raids and collateral arrests, has sparked concerns among economists, labor advocates, and civil rights groups over potential workforce gaps and broad civil liberties risks.

Trump's Border Czar Explores Hotline to Report Undocumented Immigrants

The incoming "border czar" of President-elect Donald Trump is considering a "new concept" to assist in the enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.

This plan involves the establishment of a hotline that would enable citizens of the United States to report unauthorized immigrants who they feel have committed crimes.

In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first term of President Trump, delivered the remarks.

He claims that he desires a location where citizens of the United States can call and report incidents.

Proposal Targets Child and Forced Labor Trafficking

"We need to take care of the American people. We need to make sure they have an outlet to help report child traffickers, forced labor traffickers. We want to give them an opportunity to be a part of the fix."

During the same interview, Homan stated that Trump's plan for mass deportation includes what are known as "collateral arrests." This means that undocumented immigrants who have not committed any crimes could be arrested as immigration officers seek other targets, The Raw Story shares.

Workplace Raids Resurface as Key Enforcement Strategy

In addition, he confirmed that workplace roundups are also a possibility.

The "border czar" makes the point that they are going to do it in a clever manner, and they are still working on how exactly to roll this out. However, [work site] operations need to come back again because it is the most common spot where they locate victims of forced labor that is being run by a number of cartels.

Professionals have expressed concern that widespread deportations could have a significant effect on the economy.

Economic Contributions of Undocumented Immigrants Under Scrutiny

According to a research that was published in October by the American Immigration Council, households that were the beneficiaries of unauthorized immigrants paid a total of $46.8 billion in federal taxes and $29.3 billion in state and local taxes in 2022.

In addition, they made contributions of $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare.

Critical Role of Undocumented Workers in Key Industries

According to the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, illegal immigrants make up around one-fifth of maintenance workers, seventeen percent of construction workers, and approximately one-quarter of farm laborers in the United States.