Here are the reasons provided by the Trump administration for deporting illegal immigrants.
I. Undocumented immigrants smuggle drugs into America
First, we must acknowledge that deporting people who live here does little to prevent drug smuggling. To smuggle drugs, one must carry them across a border crossing, which someone already living here seldom would do.
Federal data (DEA, CBP) show that the overwhelming majority of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine is smuggled through official ports of entry, hidden in cars, trucks, or commercial shipments — not carried across the desert by migrants on foot.CBP reports consistently show that more than 90% of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossings.
A 2025 DEA report confirms that cartels utilize ports of entry in California and Arizona for large-scale smuggling operations.
DEA CBP records show that in the 2024 fiscal year alone, they seized over 19,600 pounds of fentanyl, a record amount—signaling the scale of interdiction efforts at legal entry points. The cartels rely on volume shipping through legal infrastructure, not backpacking with migrants.
Now, with illegal crossings nearly eliminated, virtually all drug smuggling is forced through legal ports and means.
II. Undocumented immigrants commit crimesStudies from the Cato Institute, the National Academy of Sciences, and state-level crime data (e.g., Texas DPS reports) show undocumented immigrants have lower conviction and arrest rates than native-born Americans.
The reasons: the risk of deportation is high, so undocumented people generally avoid criminal entanglements.
A Reuters fact-check debunked claims that undocumented immigrants are responsible for thousands of killings annually. In reality, homicide rates among undocumented immigrants (around 1.9 per 100,000) are far lower than among U.S.-born individuals (around 4.8 per 100,000).
They do commit immigration-related offenses (being in the country unlawfully, using false papers), but violent crime and property crime rates are lower than U.S. citizens.
III. Undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes.False. They pay sales taxes, property taxes (either directly as owners or indirectly through rent), and payroll taxes.
The Social Security Administration estimates that undocumented workers contribute billions annually in Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes (via false or borrowed SSNs), benefits they can’t collect.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in 2022, undocumented immigrants paid an estimated $96.7 billion in total taxes: $59.4 billion in federal taxes $37.3 billion in state and local taxes.
Specifically, they contributed: $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes.
Furthermore, the Penn Wharton Budget Model reports that undocumented immigrants paid around $24 billion into Social Security in 2024—even though they can’t receive benefits.
Thus, on balance, immigrants contribute to the official Social Security fund.
IV. Undocumented immigrants use services like schools and hospitals, crowding out citizens.It is true they use these services, but they also pay for them.
Schools are funded by state/local sales, income, and property taxes, which undocumented immigrants also must pay.
Hospitals: Though undocumented immigrants pay FICA taxes, they cannot use Medicare or Social Security benefits. They are more likely to live in poverty and tend to utilize emergency rooms for their healthcare needs. This does impose local costs, though immigrants use fewer health services per capita than citizens.
“Crowding out citizens” is a misleading term. The central problem arises when local governments do not utilize immigrants’ taxes to enhance local systems.
V. Undocumented workers depress wages and compete with citizensComprehensive wage-impact reviews, such as those by the Economic Policy Institute, show that immigration—including undocumented—has a minimal effect on native-born workers’ wages, even for those with low education levels.
Immigrants, particularly the undocumented, often work in physically demanding, manual occupations that do not overlap heavily with those held by native low-skilled workers, suggesting a complementary rather than competitive dynamic.
THE COSTS
The Center for American Progress (CAP) estimates a cost of $315 billion for a one-time, comprehensive deportation effort, or $88 billion annually if implemented at a rate of 1 million deportations per year.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model calculates the average per-deportee cost to be between $70,000, encompassing arrests, detention/monitoring, legal processing, and transportation.
A major 2025 appropriations package allocated $75 billion over four years to ICE—this nearly triples its previous annual enforcement capabilities. Two-thirds of this funding ($45 billion) is slated for detention operations, with the remaining $30 billion for arrests, transport, and related enforcement.
In May 2025, the House passed a plan that adds over $150 billion over five years for immigration enforcement, with $59 billion earmarked specifically for detention and transportation, and $51 billion for border infrastructure.
ICE Air charters cost approximately $17,000/hour, with 5-hour flights translating to about $630 per deportee. Use of military aircraft like C-17s and C-130Es is far more expensive—some trips have been estimated at $852,000 for a single flight of up to 80 migrants.
A Guantanamo Bay detention of 40 migrants cost of $16 million, $400,000 per person, including transport, tents (at $3.1 million each), and security overhead.
The Joint Economic Committee estimates that deporting 8.3 million could shrink GDP by 7.4% by 2028, remove up to 1.5 million workers from the construction sector, and result in the loss of 44,000 native-born jobs for every 500,000 removals.
The costs of deporting 11 million people could total $1.1–$1.7 trillion in GDP loss, equivalent to a 4.2–6.8% decline in GDP.
The American Immigration Council found that undocumented immigrants contributed in 2022: $46.8 billion in federal taxes, $29.3 billion in state/local taxes, and had $256.8 billion in spending power, which would vanish if deported.
There appears to be sufficient funding for deportations, but insufficient funding for Social Security and Medicare. That, at least, is the claim of the current administration.
THE POLITICS
The Trump administration has portrayed undocumented immigrants as a threat for political gain. This is an age-old tactic used by dictatorships: they label a group as dangerous to the nation and then position the dictator as the sole protector of the citizens.
Hitler did it with the Jews.
Stalin claimed kulaks (better-off peasants) as “enemies of the people” and traitors, justifying mass deportations, executions, and forced collectivization.
Mao Zedong claimed “counterrevolutionaries” and intellectuals were existential threats to the revolution, which enabled purges and “struggle sessions” during the Cultural Revolution.
Mussolini used fear of communists and anarchists to consolidate fascist control, presenting himself as the bulwark against chaos.
Milošević demonized Croats, Bosniaks, and Kosovars as existential threats to Serb survival, fueling ethnic cleansing in the 1990s.
Rwandan Hutu extremists claimed Tutsis were plotting genocide of Hutus, then carried out their own mass slaughter in “defense.”
WHAT IF WE PROVIDED A PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP
Instead of the time, effort, and costs (both financial and human—associated) of hunting down, convicting, jailing, and deporting undocumented immigrants, we could create a simpler and faster pathway to citizenship, similar to what our grandparents experienced.
What would that accomplish?
According to the Center for American Progress, legalization would raise GDP and economic output. It would increase productivity, consumer demand, and the quality of labor supply.
The Congressional Budget Office and multiple analyses find that legalization would increase federal receipts (including Social Security/Medicare receipts), reducing deficits relative to massive removals.
National Academies Press projects that aggregate effects on native wages would be small. The overall impact on U.S. native wages would be modest, with small downward pressure on the least-skilled native workers in some studies, but gains to the economy and to immigrants’ wages are larger.
A well-known modeling study conducted by the Center for American Progress in collaboration with UC-Davis and Giovanni Peri estimated that providing a pathway to citizenship for 10 million undocumented individuals could increase the U.S. GDP by up to $1.7 trillion over a decade.
This growth would be driven by factors such as improved labor productivity, greater attachment to the labor force, and increased consumer spending.
Studies from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and other analyses indicate that granting legal status to a significant number of undocumented immigrants leads to increased payroll and income tax revenues, as well as higher contributions to Social Security and Medicare.
This is primarily because having legal status tends to increase earnings, even when accounting for some growth in benefit expenditures.
NBER work and related papers suggest that legalization could significantly increase the private-sector GDP share.
A National Academies’ comprehensive review concluded that second-generation immigrants make strong economic contributions.
IN SUMMARY
Immigrants are often diligent individuals who make valuable contributions to the nation. They come here to create new lives and, in doing so, help build America.
Instead of inhumanely tracking them down, imprisoning, and deporting them, which destroys the lives of innocent, good people, America could harness their contributions for the benefit of all.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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