President Donald Trump’s administration is looking to hugely expand detention space for illegal aliens, a move that will cost billions but is still far cheaper than the annual cost of illegal immigration to American taxpayers.
A federal proposal by the Trump administration, detailed in the New York Times, suggests that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking to open new detention facilities across the United States that agents could readily use to hold arrested illegal aliens.
“The request, which comes from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calls for contractors to submit proposals to provide new detention facilities, transportation, security guards, medical support, and other administrative services worth as much as $45 billion over the next two years,” the Times reports.
That $45 billion in spending over two years is vastly less than the annual cost of illegal immigration to American taxpayers, which totals more than $150 billion.
Likely thanks to former President Joe Biden’s mass migration, the cost of illegal immigration increased by $35 billion from 2017 to 2023.
“Each illegal alien or U.S.-born child of illegal aliens costs the U.S. $8,776 annually,” the latest estimate from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) states. “Evidence shows that tax payments by illegal aliens cover only around a sixth of the costs they create at all levels in this country.”
Today, ICE has detention space for just about 47,000 illegal aliens, even as more than 8 million illegal aliens are on the agency’s non-detained docket — meaning they are not in detention as they await deportation hearings.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
