Trump Deportations Hit Major—and Costly—Snag
A lack of funds, space and inadequate infrastructure are stymying Trump’s quest for a sky full of repatriation flights.
Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s mass deportations of unauthorized immigrants are sucking up public funds and stretching the limits of government resources, according to reports.
The president promised on Inauguration Day in January that he would see to it that “millions and millions” of people would be flown out of the U.S. But to deport just one million illegal “aliens” would mean that Trump’s administration would need to repatriate some 2,700 individuals daily for a full year. And reports suggest that Immigration and Customs Enforcement are nowhere near that figure due to a cocktail of dwindling funds, huge bills and there being no space to hold individuals.
Tom Homan speaks during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Dec. 22, 2024.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images
According to ICE figures, the highest daily arrest total was 1,100. The White House last released a daily total on Feb 4., with just 800 arrests reported. NBC cited people close to Trump who said the president is growing “angry” at the state of play, and wants “border czar” Tom Homan to deliver 1,200 to 1,400 daily arrests.
This, of course, costs money. Axios reported that Republican senators urged Congress to fast track $175 billion to help the effort. “At the end of the day, we’ve gotta just spend money,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told the publication. “Unfortunately, the American taxpayers are going to have to pay the bill on this.”
WSJ analysis revealed that the Trump administration did exactly that, footing a $3 million bill to repatriate about 100 migrants to India on a military plane earlier this month.
But money is not the only issue. A lack of detention space and inadequate infrastructure is also stymying progress. The current administration has used the “catch and release” program to free 461 undocumented immigrants from custody since Donald Trump took office. This is partly down to space issues.
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Adriel D. Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told Axios that the system wasn’t designed to deport such large numbers of people. “The system generally wasn’t created to deport so many people, to deport millions of people,” he said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detain a suspect Feb. 7, 2017.
Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via REUTERS
And even if Homan achieves his much-coveted daily quota of 1,400 people, there is nowhere to put them. As a result, he reportedly wants to double beds in ICE detention units to 100,000.
Failure to do this could mean housing immigrants in local jails, or in new units developed with costly private contractors. It has also inspired Trump’s push to send people to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The president’s plans could eventually see 30,000 people held there, despite legal concerns about doing so.
CoreCivic, a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers, is said to be in touch with the Trump administration daily and has reportedly presented a plan for 28,000 new beds.
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