Donald Trump’s promise to launch an intensive campaign of immigration enforcement, or “mass deportations” for short, is feasible and will be beneficial to Americans.
While there will be some increased costs to boost enforcement, the return on investment is significant and comes in the form of more jobs for Americans, and less money needed for services to migrants and safer communities.
Our nation has experienced an unprecedented influx of illegal migration under President Biden’s policies, with profound consequences for the communities absorbing the migrants. Since 2021, more than 7.5 million inadmissible migrants have been allowed to enter outside the legal programs, pushing the foreign-born share to 14 percent of our population, the highest in history.
The cost of this mass resettlement program has been enormous — hundreds of billions of dollars for transportation, housing, food, medical care, schooling and other services to the migrants. Most of the cost is borne by state and local taxpayers, especially in sanctuary jurisdictions like California, New York and Massachusetts, which have spent extravagantly on shelters and other support.
We are told by critics of immigration enforcement that Trump’s mass deportation plan, to be led by new border czar Tom Homan, is logistically impossible and too costly to achieve.
That’s wishful thinking on the part of the critics. . . .