The High Cost of Deportation
Most people, including lawmakers from both parties, know the immigration system is broken and that we need real reform. But some right-wingers, including Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and former House Speaker Rep. Newt Gingrich, keep holding on to the fantasy that we if we just conduct a massive police action to arrest, try and deport every undocumented worker in every factory and every farm in America, we can solve our immigration problem in a snap.
Well, the Center for American Progress today released the first-ever cost assessment of a mass deportation policy for the 10 million undocumented persons currently in the country and the 500,000 that successfully cross the border each year. And guess what? It would essentially drain the Treasury. The data analysis estimates the cost to be at least $206 billion over 5 years ($41.2 billion annually), and could be as high as $230 billion. We arrived at this number even after assuming that 2 million of the 10 million would leave on their own–a pretty large assumption.
To put $41 billion in perspective, that would exceed the entire annual budget of the Dept of Homeland Security ($34.2 billion) and more the double the annual cost of the war in Afghanistan ($16.8 billion).
Most reasonable politicians have rejected mass deportation as costly and ineffective measure that would do little to improve our security and could devastate key sectors of our economy. This study puts the nail in the coffin for the “just deport ‘em” crowd.
We need real immigration reform, not rhetoric.
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Maybe we should deport Tancredo…
July 26th, 2005 at 8:55 amWe could try to spend more on keeping them out of this country in the first place.
July 26th, 2005 at 9:05 amSend Tancredo on a tour of Mexico and then on a pilgrimage to Mecca. On taxpayers money, I don’t mind. Just get him out of here.
July 26th, 2005 at 9:40 amThey are interested in one thing and one thing only, and will float any hare brained scheme they think the proles will go for to help achieve it. They are not stupid, just evil, and they know full well the cost of such a program.
One afternoon late last month, I paid a visit to the offices of Americans for Tax Reform, the conservative lobbying outfit headed by Grover Norquist. Though Norquist ranks among the Republican Party’s leading operators, neither he nor his organization is quite yet a household name. Outside the Beltway, he is known mainly, if at all, for the cheerfully visceral quotations that regularly appear next to his name in newspaper articles. (Shortly after the G.O.P.’s Election Day victory, Norquist mused to The Washington Post that the city might become less bitter and fractious now that the Democrats had been more or less neutered. ”Certain animals run around and are unpleasant,” he noted, ”but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.”) Inside the Beltway, however, Norquist has made his mark as a political organizer. Each Wednesday morning, more than a hundred leading conservative activists, policy pundits, talk-show producers and journalists, joined by assorted Hill staff members and White House aides, gather in Americans for Tax Reform’s conference room to discuss the issues of the day, from prescription drugs to school choice. Within Republican circles, Norquist’s job is to organize other organizations, making sure the different branches of conservatism are moving in the same direction, at the same time, to the greatest extent possible. His particular genius is for persuading one organization to reach beyond its own agenda to help out another — for getting, say, the cultural traditionalists at the Eagle Forum to join the business libertarians at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in opposing fuel-economy standards for automobiles by convincing the traditionalists that, as Norquist once explained to me, ”it’s backdoor family planning. You can’t have nine kids in the little teeny cars. And what are you going to do when you go on a family vacation?”
http://markmaynard.com/ index.php/ 2005/ 01/ 19/ super_grover_destroys_government
July 26th, 2005 at 9:45 amAnything to bankrupt the Federal govt. Decent people should know this. They will never elect a Republican again.
http://www.thenation.com/ docprint.mhtml?i=20010514&s=dreyfuss
http://www.sojo.net/ index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0404&article=040420
July 26th, 2005 at 9:50 amNorquist is as important as Rove to Bush and the extremists.
http://www.mediatransparency.org/personprofile.php?personID=52
July 26th, 2005 at 9:59 amMy thought is, since when do cost considerations for a “matter of principal” come into play for conservatives? It seems that if its a social program it matters, but if it is a religious/philisophical point then it doesn’t.
July 26th, 2005 at 10:08 amOffer illegal immigrants a job at Wal-Mart and a minimum wage ROLLBACK. Give them temporary resident status as long as they stay with the company and that way they can be identified and deported upon termination. ALWAYS KEEPING PRICES LOW.
July 26th, 2005 at 10:20 amConservatives will never accet deportation as a viable option. Aside from the costs described in this study, the exodus of cheap labor will crush every domestic industry that relies on immigrants to keep profit margins competitive. And a ConAgra that has to sell strawberries at $10/lb. is not going to have much money left over to contribute to Republican campaigns.
July 26th, 2005 at 10:35 amI’m sure it will be much cheaper to pay for educating their illegal children, providing free indigent medical care for life, chasing them back to the border and picking up the pieces after they commit crimes, etc….NOT!
Why did the dhimmicrats vote against more border agents and beds to house the OTM illegals just last week? Close the damn border, and you are right Republicans have not wanted to touch this, but not for the reason you state, but because they will be painted as racist and don’t want to lose the Hispanic votes they took away over the last few years. Don’t worry, we have been putting pressure on them, and they are starting to move. Just remember, when you encourage illegal immigration you are a party to those deaths in the rivers and on the ranches, whatever party you belong to. If you care about these people, you would encourage them not to come by making it impossible to cross.
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?s=3518526
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3638260
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3568598
Illegal entrants crossing through the Tucson Sector this fiscal year are dying at a rate 14 times greater than they did seven years ago - when the U.S. Border Patrol started its concerted effort to save them.
In 1998, the agency began the Border Safety Initiative, asking Mexican and Central American nationals not to cross the desert and putting in place its rescue teams in remote areas. At the end of the program’s first year, the agency tallied 11 people dead in its Tucson Sector, about three for every 100,000 apprehensions made.
Apprehension numbers this fiscal year are at about the same level as in 1998, but the number of dead has soared to nearly 40 for every 100,000 apprehensions in the Tucson Sector, which covers most of Arizona except for an area around Yuma.
July 26th, 2005 at 12:04 pmFake, how do you propose “making it impossible to cross?”
July 26th, 2005 at 12:16 pmfake and inaccurate, the implications of deporting illegal immigrants on our domestic economy would never even approach the cost of educating their children or giving them indigent medical care.
the true paradox, especially for conservatives, is that immigrant labor is the backbone on which the service economy stands. take all illegal immigration out of the service economy and americans will be forced to work for less money and/or companies who cannot afford american workers will either go out of business or just take their business over the border.
now wouldn’t that be the ultimate irony? that for all your raging about how illegals come here to work, the corporations just followed them back over the border?
July 26th, 2005 at 1:14 pmMikey, build a freaking fence, deploy the military, stop providing free services when they are here. You can’t think of any borders that are impossible to cross illegally right now?
Anti Warhol, so you admit I’m right? Bringing the cost of deportation into it is a moot point. It costs far more to have them here than deport them, so who cares what is costs to deport? You have it backwards as usual on the wages. Illegals bring down wages not raise them, get a clue. I seem to remember clintoon supporting NAFTA, so it’s not as though it’s strictly a Republican issue, the far Right opposed it, like the far left though for different reasons.
I think we should send a bill for every deportee we repatriate to the country of origin, then deduct that amount from any money we grant, loan, or invest in said country, then when the economic incentive is gone for these countries to export immigrants to our country, they will help stem the flow.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:44 pmGood job!
My discussion of the talking point “America’s immigration system is broken, and needs to be fixed” starts here. Good to see you got that right at the top of the post.
Of course, all of this makes me wonder just how “liberal” your organization is. Why are you basically supporting the desire of Bush and big corporations for cheap serf labor?
And, isn’t this study an indictment of past “liberal” policies that have allowed millions of illegal aliens to come to the U.S.?
There are situations under which we may need to conduct mass deportations of illegal aliens.
And, every country - should they wish to remain a country - needs to have the option of being able to deport people who are in their country illegally.
If we needed to do mass deportations, your study shows that it would cost much less if there were just 1 million here. But, since “liberals” have continued to work with the corrupt corporations that favor illegal labor, there are many millions more and the cost is far greater. Shouldn’t we blame both “liberals” and those corrupt corporations for putting us in this situation?
July 26th, 2005 at 1:57 pm13 found dead in desert over past four days
A dead woman is removed from a car abandoned on I-10 at Prince Road. In trunk is a man.
CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen
People trying to cross the border illegally are dying in the record heat. Thirteen more bodies were found scattered throughout the Arizona desert over the past four days, including six just yesterday.
The deaths pushed the official U.S. Border Patrol death toll for Arizona to 167 since the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1. County medical examiners put the number at well above 170. Last fiscal year, the Border Patrol and medical examiners recorded 221 deaths.
Tucson police and federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are investigating the death of an unidentified woman found by state police early yesterday.
The body, believed to be that of an illegal immigrant, was in the back seat of an abandoned car in the median of Interstate 10 at Prince Road. A man, still alive, was in the trunk of the car.
A state Department of Public Safety officer spotted the gray Mercury Cougar in the median at 7:40 yesterday morning, said Tucson police spokeswoman Lisa Peasley. When the officer approached the car, he found an unresponsive woman in the back seat. Fire Department personnel pronounced her dead.
Rescue personnel took the man to a hospital, where he was treated for exposure. After being interviewed, he was released into the Border Patrol’s custody, Peasley said.
The man told investigators he did not know the woman. He said they had entered the United States on Sunday with a larger group of migrants and that the vehicle had stopped in the middle of the night.
No more details were available this morning.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:57 pmSection 4 - Republican government
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Article4
We are to be protected from invasion, it is guaranteed in the consitution. Neither party is getting the job done, deal with it.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:03 pmWENATCHEE, Wash. - The man now charged with the murder of deputy Saul Gallegos in Chelan was “voluntarily removed” from the United States three times in recent years but he always came back.
Twice Jose Sanchez-Guillen was removed from the border at Blaine, and once in Wenatchee.
Immigration experts say it’s part of an old loophole in the system, where unless local law enforcement specifically notified them of an illegal immigrant in custody, they didn’t know about it.
This is the third time in recent years that an illegal alien has been charged with the murder of a Washington state police officer.
L.A. CA-An illegal alien from El Salvador earlier deported for cocaine possession, he was the doting father who used the little girl as a human shield in an hours-long Los Angeles shootout with police on July 10. Pena and Suzie were both killed.
During the incident, Pena used a 9-millimeter Beretta pistol which had been stolen last year in a burglary in Oregon. His office at the car dealership contained a bag of cocaine and a half-drunk bottle of Tequila  consistent with the illegal Pena’s previous deportation for cocaine possession.
Oregon-A 24-year-old Mexican charged with the Oregon murder of a father and the shooting of his 16-year-old son in a home-invasion robbery is an illegal alien with an Oregon driver’s license who has been previously deported from the United States.
Juan Carlos Solis is awaiting trial on 41 counts of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, attempted murder, assault in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, robbery in the second degree and burglary in the first degree, along with at least three other suspects in the July 2004 home-invasion robbery of 12 farm workers.
GAINESVILLE,TX.- Police asked for the public’s help on Monday in finding a suspect who is wanted in the kidnapping, molestation and murder of a 4-year-old Hall County girl.The body of Esmerelda Nava was found Sunday morning, seven hours after she was reported missing by her parents. Hall County law enforcement authorities have identified Cornelio Rivera Zamites, 24, a roofing man from Vera Cruz, Mexico as the prime suspect in the girl’s killing.
Denver, CO.-Donald R. Young was a Denver police officer working a second job when he was shot three times in the back and killed by an illegal alien from Mexico, Raul Garcia-Gomez. Young was providing security at Solano Ocampo, a hall used for private functions, when he was ambushed at around 1 am on Sunday May 8; another policeman was also shot but not seriously.
NY- Vinessa Hoera was brutally murdered in February 2004 by Faustino Chavez, an illegal alien from Guatemala, when she refused his obnoxious romantic advances. He raped her at knifepoint, strangled her, then slashed her throat five times. It took police two months of searching to find her body where it had been dumped in the woods in Suffolk County, New York. The victim met Chavez in a seafood store in Westhampton Beach where they both worked.
TX. In February 2004, Jenny’s two little sisters found her lifeless body in her bed, the knife still sticking out of her chest. Police later arrested David Morales and charged him with Jenny’s murder.
Shockingly, Jenny’s murder should have been prevented. Morales was an illegal alien who had been previously arrested in Austin, Texas, for molesting a 12-year-old girl more than a year before he killed Jenny.
The body of Esmerelda Nava was found Sunday morning, seven hours after she was reported missing by her parents. Hall County law enforcement authorities have identified Cornelio Rivera Zamites, 24, a roofing man from Vera Cruz, Mexico as the prime suspect in the girl’s killing.
“Elected officials are not going to take serious action until the people take it seriously enough to vote them out for their failure to act!”
Authorities have obtained murder, kidnapping and child molestation warrants for Zamites’ arrest. Investigators said at least 11 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have been involved in the case.
On Monday, officials said they suspect the man, an undocumented day laborer, may be trying to return to Mexico.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:34 pm“We are to be protected from invasion, it is guaranteed in the consitution. Neither party is getting the job done, deal with it.”
Don’t feel so bad. The previous residents couldn’t do it, either.
July 26th, 2005 at 3:42 pmDon’t feel so bad. The previous residents couldn’t do it, either.
Comment by cynical ex-hippie
Yes it was much better without the white man, I miss the stone age and the cannibalism ; )
July 26th, 2005 at 4:08 pmFrom #13: “build a freaking fence, deploy the military, stop providing free services when they are here. You can’t think of any borders that are impossible to cross illegally right now?”
No, I can’t. If they want to be here, they’ll find a way to get here somehow. Don’t be so naive. They’re coming here because here is better than there. Until that imbalance changes, they’ll keep coming.
July 26th, 2005 at 4:19 pmButt Head , try the security barrier in Israel, works just fine, cheaper than cleaning up their messes. I’m naive, you have got to be joking. This BS blog thinks it’s cheaper to pay for illegals then to enforce the law, what a load. I know it’s all our fault they live in crappy countries, why did we even bother to teach them how to: farm, purify their water, inoculate their children, etc…Everything bad in the world is the United States fault, You guys are wasted air.
July 26th, 2005 at 4:49 pmBush doesn’t want to deport illegals, he wants to grant some of them amnesty and forget about the rest.
July 26th, 2005 at 6:57 pmBush doesn’t want to deport illegals, he wants to grant some of them amnesty and forget about the rest.
Oddly enough, the exact same thing could be said about the “liberals”.
The current situation is this: 75% or more of the American public - R, D, and I - want to end illegal immigration.
But, the R and D elites like things more or less like they are now because, to be frank, they’re corrupt.
The solution to this is probably only going to come from a non-corrupt, pro-American third political party or similar.
July 26th, 2005 at 11:06 pmWe need more deportations, not more rhetoric!
July 27th, 2005 at 11:43 amProgram on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals, so this nulified diversity of life claims on sub-continental Africa, zebras being a fine example.
god is a computer
And we’re all on auto-pilot.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management –
3. Mafia (evil) aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere (”On planets where they approved evil.”)
Then we come to terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Survival of the favored.
August 15th, 2005 at 5:18 pmDeportation? nah
February 4th, 2006 at 3:28 amPut them to work building a wall at the south border. oops that won’t work. their like dogs- you build a wall and they just dig a tunnel under it. oh well I give up. lets just take out Fox and make mexico our next state (did you know there is a lot of oil there?) good reson to invade them -Huh?
[…] Regardless, the estimated cost of deportation is $206 billion over five years. As CAP phrases it, that’s $41 billion per year, more than the entire Department of Homeland Security budget. So unless Eric starts planting free money trees, I’m not sure how we’re going to afford this. […]
April 5th, 2006 at 11:55 am[…] The recent focus on immigration has provided an opportunity to knock down several prominent myths about immigration — that mass deportation of 12 million people is a feasible solution; that hardline “enforcement-only” proposals will actually reduce illegal immigration; or that undocumented workers don’t pay taxes. […]
April 5th, 2006 at 5:49 pmThere are so very many myths and political distortions being repeated on this string.
Everyone, ask who benefits from the low wages, and who benefits from the display of compasion?
There are many places to find statistics that show how much individual states are paying in taxes and how much illegal immigrants help our country. They aren’t the statistics that are being displayed here.
NEWS FLASH11. Eisenhower located and deports millions to Mexico in a few short week.
He brought all these people out of the shadows with HIGH TECH equipment: Telephones and typewriters. It really happened.
Where there’s a will, there is a way. Eisenhower was protecting the American workers wage from spiriling to the bottom. And we now know that just a lousey $10 a year extra spent on produce would give farm workers a living wage. The farmer continues to make his choice.
As for the cost of deportation, just charge all the dishonest farmers and business for their tickets home. They created the problem, they should pay to fix it.
April 5th, 2006 at 7:22 pm[…] The recent focus on immigration has provided an opportunity to knock down several prominent myths about the issue — that mass deportation of 12 million people is a feasible solution; that hardline “enforcement-only†proposals will actually reduce illegal immigration; or that undocumented workers don’t pay taxes. […]
April 5th, 2006 at 10:44 pmMany discussions of the deportation alternative argue that mass deportation is not feasible and extremely costly. However, considering the deportation alternative needs to take into account: (1) Even without deportation proceedings, up to 1 million aliens leave the country each year, (2) Certain actions such as selected actual deportatons and denying social services to illegal aliens will encourage a large number to self deport, (3) While the border cannot be 100% sealed against unlawful entry, enhanced border security can significantly reduce the number of illegal entrants.
April 9th, 2006 at 2:44 pmReply to Jim,
Hey that is a wonderful idea, while the U.S. is waiting to get the funds to deport illegals put them to work building our border walls! I love it ;0) They can dig a 50 ft footer and fill it in with concrete then block that sucker high enough and put barbed wire around the top. You could have 1 guard to 10 illegals at gunpoint, if they run they get shot just like a prison escapee. That is of course unless they are running out of the Country.
May 1st, 2006 at 1:52 pmThe calculation for the deportation of illegals is absolutely absurd ($206B). They allowed about 3 man-years per apprehension. The existing force of border patrol agents deports almost 500,000 per year!
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:25 amOther calculations indicate that the savings in reduced social services will pay back the cost of deportation in less than three years. That’s a good investment.
There is no need for any new legislation. Our fearless leaders just need to enforce the laws they put on the books years ago. We have a guest worker program that is not fully utilized, and penalties for unscrupulous employers that hire illegals. Amnesty in any form will only make the situation worse. Enforce the laws and the problem will eventually be taken care of. The current wimpy legislation being debated in the Senate does not appear to address the numerous crimes most illegals are likely guilty of, like forgery, identity theft, traffic violations, tax evasion, etc. If a citizen committed these crimes he would be put away for a long time. Should we treat illegals better than we would expect to be treated?
ok so dont deport them …. make companies pay them the equivalent wages to their legal american counter parts. once their 2$ an hour jobs dry up to even competition thell go home by themselves.
June 1st, 2006 at 11:42 pmone step better than that. make companies found guilty of using illegal labor back pay equivalant wages and then make the workes pay back taxes. the companies pay hefty labour costs and we get some of the much lost tax money back. and the immigrant that was taken advantage of doesnt take the punishment for an open arms policy to crooked corporations. everyone wins.
June 1st, 2006 at 11:57 pmthe only way to deal with the illegal immigrat situation is the make the reporcutions for breaking the law worse than the daily life in thier home country, then set up some jails and make them work to pay off their passage home. the have work programs in prision, why not apply that to all these criminals?
November 26th, 2006 at 9:32 pmPlease… Why waste the money that hispanic and other immigrants make every day for this country, too deport them?.. so it’s like saying they work for there own destruction.. immigrants don’t harm any one. They are not ignorant… in my opinion others are ignorant because no one will know what this people go through just to have a better life. and for those who eat strawberries of any kind of fruit, just remember who picked it. and when some one buys a brand new home just remember and think who build it, it sure wasn’t a White Male now was it…..
January 7th, 2007 at 6:13 pm