Costly Deportation Charade: Deporting US Immigrants at a Steep Price
Trump is financially transporting numerous immigrants nationwide for substantial fees.
By Leah Nowak 🗣️ Telegram 📢 WhatsApp 📧 Email 📓 Print 📝 Copy Link
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: ICE moves detainees from one prison to another in the US. These often remote facilities leave detainees without legal assistance, family contact, or press attention. This trick makes it easier to transport them at huge costs.
Despite his inauguration on January 20, Donald Trump had only one promise: "We will send millions of criminal migrants back to their countries." According to his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, 530 migrants were apprehended, and hundreds deported in the days that followed. On Twitter, Leavitt teased "the largest mass deportation in history."
Fast forward to April, numbers remain unconfirmed. Instead, ICE is shipping thousands of people cross-country - across state borders, to distant prisons.
Migrant Transfer: It's regular, but it's escalating. Since ICE's establishment in 2003, such transfers have been standard protocol. However, under Trump's reign, numbers have surged: An analysis by the Bloomberg economic portal shows the highest number of transfers occurred after Trump took office in February 2025[6]. Previously, no month saw as many transports. Almost half were transferred - under Biden, it was still a quarter.
Data Protection ICE relies on the "Immigration and Nationality Act" (INA) for detainee transfers[1]. The act allows detention until a decision is made on deportation. ICE maintains that transfers prevent overcrowding in detention centers or facilitate deportations by moving those affected closer to an airport. For security reasons, a person may also be placed in another facility for protection[1]. ICE stresses transfers are well-documented and justified[1].
"Wasteful and Expensive"
Bob Libal, an American civil rights leader and strategist at "The Sentencing Project," a non-profit organization in Washington D.C. that studies incarcerations in the U.S., criticizes these transports. He believes they are primarily expensive. "The entire detention system is incredibly wasteful. And under Trump, costs are skyrocketing," says the civil rights activist[3].
Bloomberg reports that taxpayers spent approximately 29 percent more on such flights in the two months after Trump took office than in the previous year - around $31 million[7]. The steep cost is due to detention centers often being built in remote locations, necessitating complex transport.
The political motivation behind these transports is clear. "It's all about keeping things hidden. People have no idea what's happening in these facilities," says Libal[3].
Human Rights Concerns
Further issues arise from these sudden transports, which uproot people from their support systems. More than a quarter of those detained by ICE in the South and Southwest are more than an eight-hour drive from their original arrest location[2].
Legal aid is scanty. Southern ICE detention centers often lie in remote areas, far from the already limited number of immigration lawyers. On average, only six lawyers within 160 kilometers of the largest ICE detention centers in the South focus on asylum issues[2]. Many families cannot afford the high costs of private lawyers, leaving many people in deportation detention practically without legal support[2].
Libal has been studying the US deportation system for over 20 years. He stresses the importance of personal stories. As long as these "faceless numbers" remain, the system is unchallengeable. "When people realize what happens behind the walls of these facilities, surprisingly many are against mass deportations," he concludes[3].
References:- [1] ICE Deportation Policy and Procedure- [2] Bloomberg analysis of ICE transfers- [3] Interview with Bob Libal on ntv podcast "Wieder was gelernt"- [4] 'Land back' program for undocumented immigrants- [5] Trump admin spends $21 million on military flights to transport migrants to Guantanamo Bay- [6] ICE Transfer Insights
- Immigrants
- Deportation
- ICE
- USA
- Bob Libal
- Mass Deportation
- The escalating transfer of migrants across the United States, a practice that has been standard since ICE's establishment in 2003 but has surged under Donald Trump's reign, is raising concerns about the employment policy of the deportation process, as it is perceived as being primarily expensive and wasteful.
- Despite the general-news focus on the politics of mass deportations, it is essential to consider the human rights implications, particularly the employment policy impacts, as many families are left without legal support due to the remote locations of detention centers and the scarcity of immigration lawyers in Southern regions.
