Gov. Shapiro gives ‘wait and see' response to Trump pledge to begin mass deportations

Gov, Josh Shapiro said Wednesday he will hold off until hearing President-elect Donald Trump’s plan on mass deportations before determining how he will respond.

“Let’s wait and see,” Shapiro said after remarks at an economic development event at a machine construction company in Dillsburg.

Shapiro’s comments come as post-Trump election fear is rippling through Pennsylvania’s immigrant communities and as other Democratic governors have spoken out forcefully about how they will respond to Trump’s threats.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week vowed to block Trump’s extreme agenda in his state, saying “you come for my people, you’ll have to come through me.”

He told residents the state would remain a sanctuary for immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and women needing reproductive care.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey told MSNBC last week that her administration, including the state police, would not cooperate with federal agencies seeking to deport residents in her state.

“Every tool in the toolbox has got to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents, and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law,” Healey said.

Shapiro issued a statement following Trump’s election, saying he would “never back down from standing up for freedoms I was elected to protect” and that he would defend democracy and fundamental rights, but without identifying any threatened groups or offering specifics about how he would defend those rights.

There are an estimated 160,000 unauthorized residents of Pennsylvania and many more if you include U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants — and Trump has threatened to remove their citizenship protections.

About 10 percent of the Pennsylvania workforce is foreign born, according to the American Immigration Council, with agriculture being the largest industry (at 17%) relying on immigrant labor.

Researchers say undocumented workers in Pennsylvania pay an estimated $1 billion in taxes.

Trump has pledged to undertake the largest deportation effort in American history, beginning on day one of his term in January and said there is no “price tag” on it.

As many as 13 million people across the country could be targeted. Current and former ICE officials have said that mass deportations would be extremely costly and pose significant logistical problems. Cost estimates have ranged in the hundreds of billions.

Shapiro spoke Wednesday at Joseph Machine Company, which for 38 years has made machines that make parts for a variety of products, including windows and doors and components for Tesla electric vehicles.

The company received $2 million in funding through the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to build a 150,000-square foot expansion facility next to its plant in Dillsburg and hire an additional 35 employees.