What Mass Deportation Costs Us All
President-Elect Donald Trump has made mass deportation and other devastating immigration policies a cornerstone of his platform. These policies paint a picture of extensive immigration raids and an unprecedented expansion to law enforcement surveillance. Under this regime, one in every 25 people would be forced to leave the United States, fundamentally changing our families, communities, and everyday lives.
Mass deportation at the scale envisioned by Trump would cost at least $315 billion to taxpayers, according to recent research by the American Immigration Council. However, this is a conservative estimate that assumes the federal government would be able to conduct a one-time deportation of 13 million people—a logistically impossible scenario. A much more likely reality is a long, devastatingly costly operation that would take several years. If the Trump Administration were to deport approximately 1 million people per year for over a decade, these costs would surpass $967.9 billion total, or $88 billion annually, to taxpayers.
Mass deportation would also trigger severe labor shortages across key industries like agriculture, construction, and health care. Immigrants provide crucial support to the working-age population in the United States, and approximately 5 million undocumented immigrants work in essential jobs. The economy and social programs would also face enormous losses due to the deportation of taxpaying undocumented immigrants, who contribute more than $76 billion in federal, state, and local taxes each year. Undocumented immigrants also contribute approximately $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare annually.
These numbers do not even come close to capturing the human cost of mass deportation. More than 5 million U.S. citizen children live with an undocumented family member. Separating family members would lead to tremendous emotional stress and could also cause economic hardship for many of these mixed-status families.
Despite the enormous costs and logistical challenges that would accompany mass deportation, we have every reason to believe that the Trump Administration will attempt its implementation. Take action today by supporting ICS’s legal services to protect immigrants from these extremist policies and keep families together.