Following his humiliating debate performance, Donald Trump is leaning even harder on the fear factor to rally his base. At the core of that strategy is engendering fear of immigrants. “We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums.”  He is doubling down on his calls for mass deportation, promising “the largest deportation in the history of our country.”

I am concerned that Americans have only begun to imagine how devastating mass deportation would be. There are around 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.  Many are deeply established in their communities. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that more than three million own homes.   What will it look like when millions of established families, many of them with deep roots in their communities, are forcibly torn apart?

The Trump deportation would result in a modern Trail of Tears. In the original Trail of Tears, thousands of Native Americans were forced from their homes; entire communities were destroyed. The brutal journey claimed countless lives, and the trauma lingered for generations. It was a moral stain on the nation. Trump’s vision of mass deportation is no different. Once again, it would be families and children who would pay the price.

Parents who have lived in the U.S. for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their neighborhoods, would be forcibly separated from their children. Many of these children would be left behind, abandoned by a government that views their families as expendable. Lives would be shattered, as family members are forced to flee to places they may barely remember or that are far more dangerous than the lives they had built here. Many would die in poverty.

Families currently banding together to pay for rent or even home ownership would no longer have the resources to afford their homes. The Center for Migration Studies estimates that the median household income of affected households would be reduced from $41,300 to $22,000, plunging millions of US families into poverty.  Many would become homeless.

Trump’s mass deportation would also be an economic disaster for the American economy. In a move of sheer economic absurdity, millions of currently economically productive people would be impoverished and made homeless both here and in the deportation destination countries. A massive chunk of economic contributors would be excised from our economy, and for no good reason. The majority of undocumented immigrants are hardworking, law-abiding individuals, raising families, contributing to their communities, and often working jobs that many Americans won’t take.

Farms, restaurants, small businesses, and entire industries that depend on the labor of immigrants would suffer. Farmers would be left without workers, unable to harvest their crops. Small businesses would be forced to close their doors. The damage would be felt in every corner of the economy: a labor shortage, rising food costs, inflated housing prices, and a likely recession fueled by the collapse of industries that rely on immigrant labor. In one model, the deportation of 7.5 million undocumented immigrants results in a GDP drop of 6.2 percent and an inflation rate increase of 3.1 percentage points.  

But the moral question looms largest. As a Christian, I go to the Bible for moral guidance, and the scripture is clear: we are called to welcome the stranger and care for the vulnerable. The biblical language here is especially pointed. According to the Old Testament prophet Malachi, God’s judgment is on those who thrust aside the sojourner (the foreigner living among us). Taking up the theme in the New Testament, Jesus makes clear that many in the church who believe they are following Jesus will be rejected because they reject the stranger.

Throughout history, Christians in America have stood on the wrong side of some of the world’s greatest moral atrocities—whether it was the Trail of Tears, the brutal legacy of slavery, or the human devastation caused by Jim Crow. These are stains on our national conscience. Tragically, we are on the brink of supporting another grand moral atrocity.

If Donald Trump is elected and his mass deportation plan is enacted, it will sadly be because Christians supported a modern-day Trail of Tears. History will judge us for what we do today, and for the sake of our nation, our communities, and our faith, we must refuse to let such a catastrophic policy become reality. The moral call is clear: while we must defend our borders and enforce law and order, we must also defend the dignity of every family, welcome the immigrant (even the undocumented), and refuse to turn a blind eye to the suffering that such policies will inflict on our neighbors and our nation. We can start by pressing our legislators to enact legislation that improves border security while at the same time providing a path to legal status for millions of hard-working immigrants who have peacefully established their homes here.