The Price of Cruelty: How the 2025 Immigration Crackdown Wastes Billions and Harms Communities

In the summer of 2025, Congress passed what supporters proudly called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” pouring an unprecedented $170 billion into immigration enforcement over the next four years. The bill promises to build more walls, expand detention centers, and supercharge deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Supporters claim it will restore order. But at what cost?

In our previous post, “Do Undocumented Immigrants Really Drain Our Economy?” we showed that undocumented workers contribute billions to our tax base and strengthen entire industries. Now, with a fresh $170 billion on the table, the federal government is poised to spend record amounts tearing those same workers away from their communities.

Behind the slogans and big numbers is a simple truth: these policies target largely nonviolent, tax-paying workers — people who help build our communities. Spending tens of billions to arrest, detain, and deport them isn’t just inhumane — it’s staggeringly wasteful.

This post will break down the real dollars behind the new budget, the massive tax revenue we stand to lose, and the painful consequences for families and communities. In the end, it’s clear: this cruel spending spree will cost us far more than money.

The True Costs of Immigration Enforcement

The 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill” represents one of the largest immigration enforcement spending sprees in U.S. history. Over the next four years, the bill commits more than $170 billion to expand and intensify immigration controls. Here’s how those billions break down:

• $45 billion for new or expanded detention centers, allowing federal authorities to detain more than 100,000 individuals at any one time — nearly double today’s already crowded system.

• $30–44 billion dedicated to deportation operations, covering transportation, legal proceedings, and contracts with local law enforcement to funnel more people into removal pipelines.

• $46 billion to expand and fortify border walls and barriers, despite evidence that walls alone do not meaningfully deter visa overstays, which make up nearly half of undocumented migration.

• The remaining billions will fund advanced surveillance technology, cooperation with state and local police, and an enlarged immigration court system designed to process far more deportations, far faster.

All told, this staggering investment is meant to supercharge deportations to a goal of 1 million people per year — about 3,000 removals per day. But these numbers ignore the human reality: many of those targeted are long-settled, nonviolent workers with U.S. citizen children, homes, and steady taxpaying jobs.

Instead of strengthening our economy and communities, this massive budget expansion is a commitment to mass detention and forced separation — at an extraordinary cost to taxpayers.

Unrealistic Goals, Inflated Spending

Behind the headline promises of 1 million deportations per year lies a logistical and moral nightmare. The current immigration system is already struggling under a historic case backlog, with deportations this year reaching about 239,000 as of July — far below the new target. To scale up to 3,000 removals per day, as the bill envisions, would require more than doubling the pace of arrests, transportation, detention, and legal proceedings.

Beyond legal barriers, there are massive operational constraints. Immigration courts are severely understaffed. Flights to repatriate deportees are limited by international agreements. Many people targeted for removal have deep roots in U.S. communities, meaning their cases are far more complicated than a simple “in and out” deportation.

Yet the federal government plans to funnel billions of dollars toward these unrealistic targets anyway. Detention facilities will expand, but the human and financial costs of holding tens of thousands of nonviolent individuals indefinitely will only mount. The promised “efficiency” of this operation is a political talking point — not a realistic blueprint.

In the end, these inflated deportation goals will not just waste money; they will push an already-overwhelmed system closer to collapse, all while tearing apart families and communities in the name of an impossible enforcement agenda.

The Economic Fallout: Lost Tax Revenue

Beyond the staggering spending, there is another price Americans will pay: the loss of billions in tax revenue from deported workers. Undocumented immigrants contribute significantly to the public purse. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented workers pay roughly $8,889 per person in combined federal, state, and local taxes each year.

If the administration achieves its goal of deporting 1 million people annually, the nation would lose nearly $9 billion in annual tax revenue — money that helps pay for schools, roads, and essential services in every state. Over four years, that loss would total around $35 billion, nearly enough to fund free community college tuition nationwide.

And that’s just the beginning. Economic modeling suggests that mass deportations would reduce GDP, shrink the available labor force in critical sectors like agriculture, construction, and hospitality, and weaken local economies that depend on immigrant spending power. In the long run, the total impact of removing millions of workers could drain hundreds of billions from the nation’s economy and starve public budgets of future revenue.

By spending billions to deport tax-paying workers, this policy effectively cannibalizes the very resources that keep American communities afloat — a cruel irony that no one in Congress seems willing to acknowledge.

The Human Cost: Breaking Up Families and Communities

Numbers alone cannot fully capture the damage this policy inflicts on people. Most of those targeted under this massive enforcement push are nonviolent individuals who have built lives and families in the United States. They raise children, pay taxes, and contribute to their neighborhoods. Many have lived here for decades, with deep roots and ties to their communities.

When these individuals are detained or deported, the harm ripples outward. U.S. citizen children face the trauma of losing a parent and, in some cases, being placed in foster care. Family-owned businesses lose trusted employees and may even close down. Local schools and social services must absorb the shock of suddenly displaced families.

Beyond that, indefinite detention itself is a humanitarian crisis. Overcrowded facilities, poor medical care, and prolonged legal delays have led to deaths and severe mental health harm inside detention centers. Mass deportation plans will inevitably expand these abuses, trapping tens of thousands of people in conditions that violate basic human rights.

By investing billions to break up peaceful families and destabilize communities, this policy trades compassion and stability for fear and cruelty — all in the name of “enforcement.”

Better Uses for $170 Billion

Imagine what $170 billion could achieve if it were invested in strengthening American communities instead of tearing them apart. That money could expand affordable housing, modernize public schools, repair roads and bridges, or dramatically improve our health care system. It could jump-start clean energy projects, expand childcare support, or help reduce student debt.

For example, just a fraction of this enforcement budget — around $10–15 billion per year — could fully fund community college tuition for millions of students, or provide universal preschool nationwide. It could also help rebuild vital rural hospitals, expand mental health care, and improve emergency response systems that are often chronically underfunded.

One powerful alternative would be to invest in a path to legal status or citizenship for undocumented workers. Experts estimate that providing a path to legal status for the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States would cost about $25–35 billion over a decade — a fraction of what mass deportation and detention will consume. And unlike deportation, this investment would pay dividends: newly legalized immigrants would contribute an estimated $100–150 billion in additional tax revenue over ten years, stabilizing families and fueling local economies.

Instead of spending $170 billion on mass detention and deportation — and losing an additional $35 billion in annual tax revenue from deported workers (a total hit of $205 billion) — we could invest far more wisely. For example, spending $25–35 billion on a path to citizenship, plus another $15–25 billion to fully fund community college or universal preschool, would cost around $50 billion total. This investment would pay itself back many times over, generating $100–150 billion in new tax revenue over a decade and delivering a net gain of $65–115 billion for the nation — not even counting the massive boost to productivity and economic growth from an educated workforce.

Instead of punishing peaceful, tax-paying workers, we could choose to strengthen families, grow the economy, and build a future rooted in fairness and opportunity — a far better return on investment than fear and cruelty.

Conclusion: A Cruel and Pointless Investment

The numbers are clear. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” plans to funnel $170 billion into a massive deportation and detention machine that will break apart families, destabilize communities, and drain billions in tax revenue from our own public budgets. By targeting nonviolent, tax-paying workers, these policies will rob the nation of both moral credibility and financial stability.

For a fraction of that spending — around $50 billion — we could build a path to citizenship and expand educational opportunities, earning back as much as $150 billion in new tax revenue while strengthening families and boosting the broader economy. That is an investment in our future, not an act of political vengeance.

It is time to see these mass deportation strategies for what they truly are: a cruel and pointless waste of taxpayer money. Instead of tearing down communities, we should build them up — with fairness, opportunity, and compassion guiding our policy choices. The American people deserve nothing less.