Low cost labor. Human rights. Given manufactured home communities that have significant numbers of illegals. The impact on depressing U.S. citizen’s wages caused by the presence of millions from “south of the border.”
With all the talk of President Trump’s plans to deport illegal immigrants, the Center for Immigration Studies research director Dr. Steven A. Camarota researched the comparative cost to support or deport the undocumented, per the Washington Times.
Often one of the arguments against deportation of illegal immigrants has been that it would cost more to deport them than to let them live in the U.S.
However, according to Camarota’s findings, the cost to deport would actually be hundreds of billions less than supporting them over their lifetime.
By taking numbers from a 2016 National Academy of Sciences study, Camarota determined that it would cost $750 billion to support over the cumulative lifetimes of all of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. On the other hand, he found that it would only cost around $125 billion to deport them.
“Sometimes people say look, we couldn’t deport everybody because it’s prohibitively expensive,” Mr. Camarota said. “But if your only concern is fiscal cost, it’s pretty clear that letting them stay is a hell of a lot more expensive.”
Camarota isn’t actually a supporter of mass deportation, but says that since this is such a hot topic this study is meant to spark conversation about the actual costs and benefits of supporting or deporting immigrants.
Based on Camarota’s findings, supporting illegal immigrants would cost around $65,000 per person, according to Newsmax.
However, this study does not consider additional costs of deportation, such as immigration court fees, which would alter the total cost of deportation, but presumably no where nearly enough to counter the huge cost difference.
Crunching One Set of Numbers May Not Reflect the Complete Picture
This is not the first study done on the costs of immigration. A 2016 study by American Action Forum (AAF) found the cost of mass deportation to be much higher, per the Washington Times.
A study by the American Action Forum found that it would take about 20 years and $100-300 billion to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants – which could end up much higher than the $125 million estimated by Camarota. However, that was under Obama Administration guidelines and policies. The Trump administration is making deportation faster, and easier.
However, in order to come to his $125 million estimate, Camarota took the 2016 cost of deportation – $10,854 – and multiplied it by the number if illegal immigrants – about 11 million. So assuming the country continued to deport illegal immigrants without incurring additional costs, his findings would be a useful ball park figure.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
The numbers used to determine the cost of supporting illegal immigrants by Dr. Camarota came from the American Academy of Sciences study. Illegal immigrants with an education actually are estimated to benefit U.S. taxpayers by $424,000 over the course of their lifetime.
On the other hand, low-skilled illegal immigrants cost tax payers an average of $173,000 over their lifetime, per Opposing Views. It should be noted that the REACH act proposal would prioritize those better educated immigrants.
Illegal immigrants under the age of 24 are often able to receive assistance for an education, and end up being successful and productive members of the U.S. economy. However, this research indicates that the larger number of low-skilled workers who immigrate to the U.S. tip those scales and make it more costly for taxpayers if they stay.
The cost to deport – based on the cost of deportation in 2016 – is far less than the cost of supporting the 11 million illegal immigrants.
“In short, illegal immigrants are a large net fiscal drain because of their education levels and this fact drives the results,” Camarota wrote, according to the Washington Examiner. “Deportation, on the other hand, is not that costly relative to the fiscal costs illegal immigrants create.” # #
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