Cost, impossible logistics, political opposition, and community resistance could spell the end of the president-elect's anti-immigrant scheme
Speaking with experts and former immigration officials, reporter Ted Hesson outlined what it would take to implement the plan:
Trump would need tens of billions of dollars in new spending approved by Congress. He'd also need years to hire and train new legions of enforcement agents, and to deploy hundreds of judges to relieve the nation's severely backlogged immigration courts. And to find even two million undocumented immigrants to deport, he'd have to change how he defines criminal acts worthy of removal—or start rounding up people without convictions. Added together, the obstacles could be insurmountable.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the average cost for each deportation is $12,213, excluding personnel salaries. So, to deport two million people, would add up to more than $24.4 billion over four years.
On top of that, a study published earlier this month by the San Francisco-based Immigrant Legal Resource Center found that Trump's pledge to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would cost businesses an estimated $3.4 billion and reduce Social Security and Medicare funds by $24.6 billion over 10 years.
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