Trump's Deportation Disaster
Less effective, more expensive and morally corrupt.
Main Headline: The Trump administration's deportation policies are ineffective, inhumane, and cost more money.
"Well, this is a time of war because (Joe) Biden allowed millions of people, many of them criminals." — Donald Trump
The Trump administration's mass deportations have escalated dramatically. In the past week, it has:
Invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798: This grants the federal government broad powers to deport individuals accused of belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without due process.
Defied a judge's order blocking deportations: The administration refused to return a flight carrying deported individuals en route to El Salvador despite a judicial injunction.
The Trump administration is creating a deportation process essentially outside of all immigration law and procedures. They are claiming the power to jail people in foreign countries without any due process. None of us are safe from this.
They justify these unconstitutional acts by focusing on deporting violent gang members, implying such actions are necessary due to crises caused by previous administrations.
The reality is very different: Trump's deportation policies target not only dangerous criminals but also individuals with minor infractions or no criminal history. These actions are executed with the same recklessness that has harmed our economy, isolated our allies, and empowered our enemies. They undermine due process, violate constitutional protections, and impose exorbitant costs on taxpayers—all while damaging America's reputation and causing unnecessary human suffering.
There is no rationale for deporting criminals and gang members without a hearing to prove they are who the government says they are. It doesn’t make us safer. It doesn’t result in a more efficient process. All it does is create chaos. '
TL;DR: What You Need to Know
No Increase in Deportation of Violent Criminals: The Trump administration is not deporting more violent criminals than previous administrations but is spending significantly more money doing so.
Targeting Non-Violent Individuals and Families: There is an increase in deportations of non-violent individuals and family separations, including those with legal status.
Cruelty as a Policy: Innocent individuals have been sent to foreign countries or detained at Guantanamo Bay under Trump's deportation policies.
The Devil is in the Details
Minor infractions such as biking on the wrong side of the road, shoplifting at Target, or simply having tattoos have led to detentions, confinement at Guantanamo Bay, and eventual deportations under the Trump administration. For instance, Venezuelan national Francisco Javier García Casique, with no criminal record, was detained due to his tattoos and deported to El Salvador along with over 200 others suspected of Tren de Aragua affiliation.
Under President Barack Obama, 91% of deported individuals in 2015 had criminal convictions. In Obama's peak deportation year of 2013, 60% were convicted of crimes. In contrast, the Trump administration has expanded deportable offenses to include minor crimes, such as shoplifting, even without convictions. This shift has led to a significant rise in detentions of immigrants without criminal records, with a 221% increase reported in February. 44% of deportees with criminal records only had misdemeanor convictions.
Bottom Line: Donald Trump is not deporting more violent criminals than previous administrations but is creating more chaos and acting with greater cruelty.
The cost of Trump’s deportations.
Donald Trump’s mass deportations are more spectacle than policy. He wants a show—military planes packed with migrants, detention centers overflowing, cruelty maximized. But this theater comes with a hefty price tag.
Here is what Trump’s deportations cost you:
ICE Budget: $3.4 billion to detain an average of 41,500 people per year.
Cost per detainee (per year): $60,000.
Standard chartered deportation flights: $85,000 per flight (~$630 per person).
To increase the spectacle, the Trump administration ditched commercial flights for military aircraft, drastically inflating costs:
A recent U.S. Air Force cargo plane flight from El Paso to Guatemala cost $300,000 to transfer 64 migrants—about five times the cost of a commercial charter flight.
Another Air Force cargo plane was used to deport 104 Indian nationals to India, with an estimated cost of over $1 million.
That’s not it. Trump’s use of Guantanamo Bay as a detention center comes at a major cost to Americans.
ICE’s Guantanamo budget: $32 million per year.
Cost per bed: $272,409—nearly 5x the cost of a U.S. detention bed.
These are just the direct costs of detention and deportation. Immigration enforcement spending totals around $20 billion annually.
The bottom line: Trump’s cruelty isn’t just inhumane—it’s expensive. His performative deportation machine, targeting people with no criminal records or minor offenses, is costing taxpayers billions. He’s not making us safer. He’s wrecking our reputation, inflicting unnecessary harm, and draining our resources.
How to talk about this.
A man deported to El Salvador—for having tattoos.
A Canadian actress—detained by ICE for 12 days while applying for a visa.
A German green card holder—violently interrogated and detained.
This is Trump’s America: Chaos, cruelty, corruption.
Trump’s deportation policies haven’t made us safer, but they’ve cost taxpayers more money.
Yes, Americans broadly support deporting violent criminals. But that’s not what Trump is doing. He’s throwing out the Constitution, detaining legal residents, and staging brutality for the cameras.
If we let him control the narrative, he wins. He’ll show handcuffed “gang members” and call it justice. It’s a lie.
The truth: Trump isn’t deporting more criminals. He’s wasting taxpayer money, defying court orders, and grabbing unchecked power. That endangers all of our rights.
We need to call this what it is—a stunt. A scam. A threat to democracy.
Sources:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “ICE Arrests in First 50 Days of Trump Administration” – official press release.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) internal enforcement statistics (2025).
Reuters – “Trump set to broaden arrests, deportation routes as immigration crackdown expands”, February 21, 2025.
Reuters – “Trump’s early immigration enforcement record by numbers”, March 4, 2025.
Statista – “Number of Latin American migrants deported from the U.S.” (2025).
Wikipedia – “Deportation of Indian nationals under Donald Trump” (2025).
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) – “Weekly Border & Immigration Enforcement Updates” (2025).
https://www.wola.org
Associated Press – “Guatemala confirms thousands of deportations from U.S. under new policies”, February 11, 2025.
Al Jazeera – “US expands deportations through Panama, Costa Rica under new deals”, February 25, 2025.
The Guardian – “Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reports record deportations under Trump”, March 3, 2025.
BBC News – “US-India deportation flight under Trump: Inside the massive repatriation effort”, February 5, 2025.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) – 2025 Annual Removal Statistics Report (Quarter 1 Data).
ICE Air Operations – “Cost and Logistics of Large-Scale Deportation Flights”, internal budget report (2025).
American Immigration Council – “Who is being deported under Trump? A deeper look at the numbers”, March 2025.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org
AP News: Venezuelan Man Deported After Detention in Guantanamo
NY Post: Brown University Doctor Deported Over Hezbollah Allegations
Houston Chronicle: 10-Year-Old Girl With Brain Cancer Deported
Politico: Trump Using 1798 Alien Enemies Act for Deportations
It’s a stunt and a scam but it is also the antithesis of what our country is supposed to stand for, one more instance of the inhumanity of trump and his partners in crime. And most people aren’t blinking.
My daughter in law from Brazil got a letter that her 16 yr old son had to go back to Brazil to get his green card...their papers are in process. She thinks he will be away for a month. I am horrified. I don't believe he will be back.
This is a wonderful young man living in a middle-class home with his mom and my son. On the soccer team and an A student who just loves his little dog and is in church every week.
Deported away from his mother...I am sick with fear for him.
I don't recognize my country anymore...