Harris had the chance to condemn mass deportation. She missed it.

Harris’s reticence was a significant misstep for several reasons. Among Trump’s long list of controversial proposals, few have faced as much criticism as mass deportation. The scale of his plan is immense, given the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

Mass deportation at this level would incur a tremendous cost. A recent report by the American Immigration Council suggests that one-time mass deportation would cost at least $315 billion, including $89.3 billion for arrests, $167.8 billion for detentions, $34.1 billion for legal processing and $24.1 billion for removals.

The long-term economic consequences are worse. Mass deportation of undocumented workers would lead to a 4.2 percent to 6.8 percent reduction in the United States’ annual gross domestic product, amounting to $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion in 2022 dollars.

But the human cost would be even more devastating. About 6 million American children could be separated from their parents, potentially ending up in the welfare system. Hundreds of thousands of mixed-status households would endure the trauma of deportation, a known trigger for serious mental health issues. And the loss of undocumented relatives would send hundreds of thousands of families into poverty.

An immigration lawyer recently suggested a way to illustrate the potential tragedy of Trump’s proposal for the Latino community. She referenced the famous scene from “Back to the Future” in which a distressed Marty McFly watches his family members slowly disappear from a photograph. “Imagine that, but with millions of Latino families in the U.S.,” she said.

All of this is to say: the social and economic effect would be catastrophic. Yet, during Univision’s town hall, Harris chose not to call attention to Trump’s punitive plan.

Why?

She is erring on the side of caution.

Harris’s campaign seems to have decided that emphasizing the costs of mass deportation would be ill-advised. Her team is likely reacting to shifts in public opinion. Recent polls show that Americans are moving to the right on immigration, with a majority now favoring more restrictive policies. More than half of all Americans now support mass deportation, including one-quarter of Democrats.

Harris might be thinking that taking a more empathetic stance toward the undocumented community and expressing outrage over Trump’s cruel policies could alienate key voters just weeks before the election.

Although this strategy might make sense for undecided White voters in swing states such as Wisconsin (even though Wisconsin’s dairy industry would suffer greatly without immigrant labor), it’s less wise when considering Latino voters.

Though some polls indicate that Latinos support stricter border control measures, Hispanic communities also possess a deep-rooted concern for keeping families together. A recent poll by Equis Research found that 77 percent of Hispanic respondents identified family cohesion as the most important immigration relief policy for the Biden administration. The firm also tested messaging strategies on immigration policy and found that the most effective approach for shifting Harris’s vote share involved highlighting Trump’s plans for large-scale raids, including his threat to deploy the National Guard to deport millions of immigrants.

Given this context, Harris’s decision not to use the Univision town hall to explain the brutal consequences of mass deportation to a Latino audience is perplexing. If Trump’s opposition refuses to call out his dangerous policies, then voters will have fewer opportunities to understand the real-life implications of a second Trump term. Harris should have shown the Univision audience photographs of Latino families being broken up and emphasized that, if Trump wins, Latinos could be the ones seeing their family members fade away.

It was a missed opportunity, but she still has time to present the moral case and explain what it would mean for the United States to expel millions of people who have raised families, raised American children, paid billions of dollars in taxes, and deeply contributed to the country’s social and economic fabric.

After Nov. 5, it might be too late — and for many in the Hispanic community, the lesson could be painful.