By Rajwa Quasim
President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign could cost U.S. taxpayers about $2,358 per person, according to a new calculator tool from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The tool estimates that the total cost to taxpayers could reach $268.9 billion over the course of Trump’s second term.
The EPI released an online calculator tool that estimates how much taxpayers in each state, counties and cities would need to contribute towards the federal government’s mass deportation efforts. The estimates are built by calculating each area’s share of federal income taxes, which could mean places that contribute more to taxes pay a larger percentage of the projected cost. For instance, residents of Washington D.C. face a huge burden of $3,930 each, meanwhile West Virgina taxpayers would pay about $1,297 each. The total amount collected in the District is enough to cover SNAP benefits for 455,000 additional people, housing assistance for 21,000 households, or Medicaid for 30,000 people.
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Critics argue that the billions that used from taxpayers’ money could have been used in much more important issues that Americans face in day-to-day basis. For instance, based on National Priorities Project Data, the estimated $268.9 billion will be able to fund an additional 118 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program (SNAP) recipients for over the next 2.5 years or 12 million additional Americans could receive Medicaid.
“I don’t think people realize how much money is being spent on these mass deportations. […] In almost every place in the country, there a lot of people who are struggling to not be hungry, to have affordable housing, kids are in overcrowded classrooms, people don’t have health insurance, and those are the things that matter most…Instead, we’re spending an unbelievable amount of money, chasing down, detaining, deporting people,” Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center and research associate at EPI, told Axios.
“It costs money that is desperately needed for other things in almost every community in the country,” he noted.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) backed the mass deportation project and held the previous Biden administration responsible for ignoring the costs of illegal immigration. A DHS spokesperson said that U.S. offers a free flight and a $2,600 stipend for those individuals who self-deport through the CBP Home app. He added that this program is a money saver since the cost of deportation per person is about $5,100, which is $13,000 less per person than a traditional deportation, ultimately, saving taxpayers money.
The estimated total budget of $268.9 billion is from a mix of various sources like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, budget reconciliation bills, regular appropriations and other repurposed funds. The amount could go higher if Congress approves additional funding through other avenues.
Leaders of four major democratic congressional caucuses (Congressional Asian Pacific American, Congressional Black, Congressional Hispanic, Democratic Women’s) issued a joint statement condemning the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to unwind the 2022 public charge rule.
According to a Homeland Security spokesperson, the department has deported nearly one million undocumented immigrants as of July 12.