New tool lets users see how much deportations cost taxpayers — and what could be funded instead

A new tool from the Economic Policy Institute calculates the cost of mass deportation.

The tool, originally reported by Axios, uses data from a July spending report that shows Congress or other federal agencies have put more than $268 billion in federal funds toward powering the Trump administration’s deportation agenda until 2029.

Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon and a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, analyzed the data to show how that breaks down in each city, county and state — and what it could fund instead.

“There were a lot of people earlier this year saying ‘we’re wasting all this money on the war in Iran,’ or … ‘the war in Iran is costing us this much money,’ and the deportations are four or five times the war in Iran to date,” he said. “Nobody is talking about that.”

The calculator shows mass deportations cost taxpayers in Tucson over $1,000 each, money that could pay for over 700 teachers or more than 400 nurses.

In Phoenix, the cost is over a billion dollars all told, or more than $2,000 per person, enough for SNAP benefits for more than 479,000 people, more than 51,000 public housing units, or other items.

Lafer says the cost to taxpayers was significant, even in less populated places, where the overall contribution was small.

“When you say six teachers, in a school system of 1,000 kids, you can picture where they go, and when you say 500 people who can stay on food stamps instead of being kicked off, you may know some of them,” he said.

Lafer says the more than $268 billion estimate includes funding allocated to detention facilities, deportation flights, ICE agents and other portions of mass deportation efforts as part of major spending packages like the GOP-crafted One Big, Beautiful Bill.

As the report notes, the true figure is likely higher, because researchers did not include all the money directed to deportations from other federal agencies, or the costs to states and local governments.

Government data consistently shows the majority of people in custody in immigration detention centers nationwide have no criminal convictions.