The mass deportation plan that former President Donald Trump promised to implement if he is re-elected will come at a heavy cost.
The American Immigration Council estimates that deporting 1 million people a year could cost $88 billion a year. Millions of construction, hospitality and agricultural workers could be laid off, potentially reducing US gross domestic product by $1.7 trillion.
Tom Homan, who led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump administration, said he didn’t know if the $88 billion annual cost estimate was accurate, but said mass deportations were necessary.
“What’s the price for national security? Is it worth it?” Homan said.
Current deportation system
60 Minutes recently joined ICE agents in Silver Spring, Maryland, to locate and arrest undocumented immigrants with criminal histories including assault, robbery, drug and gun convictions. They had been identified by ICE as a threat to public safety.
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They stopped the van and arrested the passenger. The passenger was a 24-year-old Guatemalan who had been convicted of assault and had been ordered deported by a judge five years earlier. ICE officials said the driver of the van was also in the country illegally and had previously been deported, but was released. Matt Elliston, director of ICE’s Baltimore field office, said the driver had no criminal history.
“He was picking up employees to go to work,” Elliston said. “It makes no sense to waste a jail bed on someone like that when we need to go and catch other felons today.”
Elliston said ICE’s mission is targeted enforcement that uses immigration laws to improve public safety.
“We don’t just randomly arrest people we meet,” he says.
It took a team of more than a dozen police officers seven hours to arrest the six people, not including the hours spent searching.
Are there resources available to support mass deportations?
The United States is home to more than 11 million illegal immigrants, about 3% of the population, and President Trump has vowed to launch the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. Homan has said he would join if Trump wins a second term, but said he was not aware of any written mass deportation plans.
“ICE is very good at these operations. This is what they do,” Homan said.
But Elliston doesn’t know how Maryland agencies will find the resources for mass deportations.
Cecilia Vega and Matt Elliston 60 minutes
“It costs that much to detain everyone, that’s… [would be] “This is Department of Defense level funding.”
Jason Hauser, who served as ICE chief of staff during the first two years of the Biden administration, said it costs $150 a night to detain people like those arrested on “60 Minutes.” Ta. The average length of stay while awaiting deportation is 46 days. Each deportation flight costs $250,000, but this assumes their home country will accept them. Many countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela, rarely do so.
Who will handle mass deportations?
ICE currently has approximately 6,000 law enforcement officers in its deportation division. Houser said arresting and deporting 1 million people a year would require a significant increase in personnel.
“You’re talking about 100,000 civil servants, police officers, detention staff, support staff and administrative staff,” he said.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller has said the agents could come from other government agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, but Houser has floated the idea of removing agents from other agencies other than ICE from their assigned duties. criticized.
Immigration enforcement also requires specialized training and language skills that most military and law enforcement officers lack.
“It’s not an easy replacement,” Elliston said. “The Immigration and Nationality Act tells us that immigration law is second only to U.S. tax law in complexity.”
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