The cost of deportations

In this email, we spotlight our new calculator showing the taxpayer cost of Trump’s mass deportations in every U.S. state, county, and city—and what those funds could be used for instead. We also share the economic toll of the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, and learn that three out of five Black residents can’t afford D.C.

The Trump admministration is spending billions of taxpayer dollars on mass deportations

The Cost of Deportations Calculator

The Trump administration’s immigration policy is not just inhumane, it is also a huge waste of public resources. The Trump administration is spending $269 billion—or $2,358 per taxpayer—on mass deportations. We built a calculator to show you what that money could have funded instead—in every U.S. state, city, and county.

For example, with the money spent on mass deportations, the U.S. could fund one of the following options:

More than 925,000 school teachers
Over 5 million veterans’ medical care
Nearly 12 million people on Medicaid
9.7 million public housing units
Paid parental leave for 6.2 million parents

Try the calculator

The economic cost of DHS attacks on immigrants

The cost of DHS attacks on immigrants

The Trump administration’s deployment of DHS agencies—such as ICE—has caused irreparable harm to our communities, neighbors, and families across the country. The economic costs are also substantial—and mounting.

In an exclusive EPI event (held June 25, 2026), policy experts discussed how the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is harming workers, businesses, and the broader economy.

Watch the recording

Learn more

State Policy Updates

Three Out of Five Black Residents Can’t Afford D.C.

Affordability challenges—the outcome of the constant race between incomes and prices—are straining households across the country. In the District of Columbia, those challenges are particularly acute for Black households. As this brief from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute describes, decades of historical and ongoing discrimination have greatly limited the economic outcomes of Black households, who in turn face the brunt of the District’s enduring affordability crisis. On average from 2020 to 2024, nearly 61% of Black households in the District had incomes below the estimated amount needed for a modest, but adequate standard of living.

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