How much Trump's deportation push could cost Texas taxpayers
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Texas could pay an estimated $23 billion toward President Trump's mass deportation push — about $2,500 per taxpayer — according to a calculator from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Why it matters: The estimate fuels debate over whether billions of federal dollars devoted to deportations should instead fund other public priorities, such as health care or housing.
Context: The $269 billion the administration is slated to spend on deportations over the course of Trump's second term comes from a combination of money from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, regular appropriations and other repurposed funds.
- The Department of Homeland Security told Axios in July that the government spends roughly $18,000 per non-voluntary deportation.
Zoom in: Harris County taxpayers would contribute $4.1 billion, or about $2,960 per taxpayer, according to the calculator.
- That amount could instead fund about 16,693 teachers or 16,832 firefighters locally, the calculator shows.
Zoom out: American taxpayers would broadly pay about $2,358 each for Trump's mass deportation push, per EPI's tool.
- The estimated cost could alternatively fund more than 118 million additional SNAP recipients over the remaining 2.5 years or nearly 12 million additional people could receive Medicaid.
How it works: EPI estimated each area's share of federal income taxes to calculate how much taxpayers in each state, county and city would contribute to deportation spending.
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.
- "... we're spending an unbelievable amount of money, chasing down, detaining, deporting people," he said, noting that most people in the country without authorization lack criminal records. "It costs money that is desperately needed for other things in almost every community in the country."
The other side: A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson blamed the Biden administration in a statement to Axios for ignoring the costs of illegal immigration and said the department's self-deportation program saves taxpayers roughly $13,000 per removal compared with traditional deportation.
- The program pays unauthorized immigrants to leave voluntarily and is on pace for more than 200,000 departures, including 20,000 from Texas, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports.
- It's a key part of the administration's push to remove 1 million people a year while easing detention and bed space pressures.