In Reply to: One of these things is not like the other posted by mh on August 09, 2026 at 10:56:34
American taxpayers would pay about $2,358 each for President Trump's mass deportation push, according to a new calculator tool from the Economic Policy Institute.
Why it matters: The estimate fuels debate over whether billions of federal dollars devoted to deportations could instead fund other public priorities such as food assistance, health care or housing.
By the numbers: EPI estimates the $268.9 billion projected for deportations could alternatively fund more than 118 million additional SNAP recipients over the remaining 2.5 years of the Trump administration, based on National Priorities Project data.
Alternatively, nearly 12 million additional people could receive Medicaid.
Or more than 9.7 million households could gain access to low-cost public housing.
What they're saying: "I don't think people realize how much money is being spent on these mass deportations," Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon's Labor Education and Research Center and research associate at EPI, tells Axios.
"In almost every place in the country, there a lot of people who are struggling to not be hungry, to have affordable housing, kids are in overcrowded classrooms, people don't have health insurance, and those are the things that matter most."
"Instead, we're spending an unbelievable amount of money, chasing down, detaining, deporting people," he said, noting that most undocumented people lack criminal records. "It costs money that is desperately needed for other things in almost every community in the country."