Deportation – We Can Do It

The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media

“The mass deportation plan former President Donald Trump has pledged to institute if he’s reelected would come with a hefty price tag.

“The American Immigration Council estimated that it could cost $88 billion annually to deport one million people a year. The removal of millions of construction, hospitality and agriculture workers could reduce the U.S. gross domestic product by $1.7 trillion.

“Tom Homan, who led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump administration, said he doesn’t know if the $88 billion a year cost estimate is accurate, but he says mass deportation is necessary.

“’What price do you put on national security? Is it worth it?’ Homan said.

“60 Minutes recently joined ICE officers in Silver Spring, Maryland, as they located and arrested undocumented immigrants with criminal histories, including assault, robbery, drug and gun convictions. They’d been identified by ICE as threats to public safety. . . .

“[Matt Elliston, director of ICE’s Baltimore field office] said ICE’s mission is targeted enforcement — using immigration law to improve public safety.

” ‘It’s not to just aimlessly arrest anyone we come across,’ he said.

It took a team of more than a dozen officers seven hours to arrest six people, and that doesn’t include the many hours spent searching for them.

“There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States — about 3 percent of the population — and Trump has vowed to launch the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. Homan, a Fox News contributor who Trump has said would join him if he wins a second term, said he’s unaware of any written mass deportation plan.

” ‘ICE is very good at these operations. This is what they do,’ Homan said.

“But Elliston doesn’t know how, in Maryland, the agency could find the resources for mass deportation. . . .

“ICE currently has around 6,000 law enforcement officers in its deportation branch. It would require a massive increase in manpower to arrest and deport a million people a year, Houser said. . . . “ — Mass Deportation Would Come With Hefty Bill, Require More Manpower, Immigration Experts Say, Cecilia Vega, Sixty Minutes Overtime, 10/27/24 [Link]

Fact Check of Above Quote: This article rests on the false assumption that we will have to round up and deport each and everyone of the alleged 11 million (or probably more) illegal aliens in the United States. A better and much cheaper way of doing it is attrition through enforcement. This strategy involves slowly but surely tightening immigration law enforcement so that living illegally in America becomes increasingly difficult. In this situation many will decide to return to their homelands. In effect, they will self-deport.

This is not just theory. It happened in 1954 when President Dwight Eisenhower launched what was called Operation Wetback to send illegal aliens home. Unlike many of our current politicians, Eisenhower actually cared about the dangers illegal immigration posed to our rule of law and the well-being of American workers.

The operation began in June, starting in California and Arizona and later spreading to Texas. By September the Border Patrol apprehended and deported 130,000 illegal aliens. During that same period, an estimated 1.1 million others returned home voluntarily, fearing that they too would be arrested. This was a ratio more than eight to one, self-deportations versus deportations. Interestingly, the Border Patrol was able to achieve this result with only about 1,000 agents, just five percent of its total strength today.

Of course deportation will cost something, but as former ICE director Tom Homan asked, “What price do you put on national security?” Some things are well worth what they cost. Nevertheless, it is a price which could be offset by the many gains to be had from enforcing immigration law. One example is that illegal aliens receive more in tax-paid benefits than they pay in taxes. The absence of illegal aliens would end this deficit. Indeed, a case can be made that their absence would more than cover the cost of their deportation.

Illegal alien advocates will never run out of excuses as to why we cannot enforce our immigration laws. But as President Eisenhower demonstrated so effectively, where there is a will there is a way.

 

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