Tennessee taxpayers are paying about $1,961 each to fund the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies, according to an analysis of the federal budget released by the Economic Policy Institute.
The think tank developed an online tool that calculates the average taxpayer’s share of the estimated $268.9 billion cost of deportations through the end of President Donald Trump’s term.
The calculator draws on IRS income data, estimates by the Institute for Policy Studies of projected federal expenditure on deportation and other data to estimate the price tag for federal taxpayers in every U.S. city, county, and state, and includes written analyses of its findings. Tennessee’s taxpayers, in total, will foot nearly than $4.5 billion of the total deportation costs, it shows.
The left-leaning think tank also calculated potential tradeoffs in the federal government’s immigration enforcement spending priorities, estimating what the same level of funding could instead be used for: covering the salaries of 21,401 firefighters, or funding Medicaid healthcare for 246,018 patients or the hiring 18,750 teachers.
“At a time when families across the country are struggling to afford housing, health care, and education, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress have been cutting support for basic needs and diverting huge sums of money to deportations,” the organization noted on its website.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security provided a statement in response to questions about the data that said “it’s ridiculous that investments to enforce the law are making headlines while the devastating consequences of breaking it went completely ignored under the Biden administration.”
The spokesperson said illegal immigration costs taxpayers over $150 billion each year — a disputed figure that varies depending on methodology and ideology.
The statement included a message to immigrants in the country without legal status to “take control of their departure with the CBP Home App” to request a $2,600 stipend and free flight out of the United States.
“Deportations are absolutely vital to stop the bleeding,” the spokesperson said.
Originally published on tennesseelookout.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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