In a report published Feb. 23 by the Center for American Progress, analysis estimates that deporting all 5 million beneficiaries of President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration would cost more than $50.3 billion, an average of $10,070 per person.
Five million is the number of undocumented immigrants that the House of Representatives’ funding bill for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), if enacted, would put at risk of deportation without the President’s programs in place.
The factors contributing to deportation costs are outlined in a series of charts on the report, detailing why the cost of deporting beneficiaries of the recent DHS/executive actions directives would likely be greater than the average cost of deportations.
Eligible immigrants for President Obama’s programs—including an expansion of the current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program from 2012, and the implementation of a new program expanding protection to eligible parents of US citizens or legal permanent residents, known as Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA)—must have already lived in the country for at least five years and meet other requirements.
Because these immigrants have been living and settled in the US for a number of years, the CAP report states that apprehension, detention, legal processing, transportation, and removal of this population is not only more complicated, but way more costly. Over $50.3 billion dollars total.
“As if the immense harm to individuals, families, and communities that would result from deporting 5 million DREAMers and their parents wasn’t enough—to say nothing of the economic harm of removing 5 million workers and consumers—$50.3 billion is a significant expenditure, more than the annual budget of more than half of the cabinet-level government agencies and larger than the GDP of more than 100 countries,” said Philip E. Wolgin, Associate Director of Immigration at CAP, and the writer of the report. “It would also come on top of losing the significant future economic gains created by the President’s executive action if the beneficiaries are deported.”
“Those losses include $22.6 billion in payroll taxes over five years, $41 billion added to the Social Security system over one decade, and $210 billion in additional GDP growth over a decade,” Wolgin continued. “Deportation would require costly interior removals, rather than the less resource-intense removals that occur as people attempt to cross the border.”
According to Homeland Security, it costs at least $8,661 to deport a single immigrant to their home country. But in any given year, roughly two-thirds of all deportations are of people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border, whereas only a third are of people actually living in the US interior.
Today’s undocumented immigrant population living in in the country has been here for an average of 12.7 years, the report stated.
Politico estimated that it would cost between $20 and $25 billion to deport those eligible for executive action. Because it only believes that 3 million of the 5 million who are eligible would come forward, however, its full deportation costs are based on a smaller population. The CAP analysis considers the deportation of the entire executive-action-eligible population, resulting in the $50.3 billion total cost.
Despite constant legislative attacks to the immigration directives announced by the President in late November, most Americans have expressed their strong support for providing a pathway to legal status for otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants. Most people do not believe that the US would even have the will or the resources to deport all 5 million beneficiaries of executive action.
“Instead of pretending that the US will deport all 5 million individuals shielded by the president’s executive action,” Wolfin finished, “Congress should come together and pass an immigration reform bill that puts them on a path to legal status, toward becoming full and equal members of society.” (With reports from the Center for American Progress)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(Las Vegas February 26, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
