In 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Federal Government decided that an entire ethnic class of Americans were an eminent threat. All persons of Japanese ancestry living in America were thought to be potential saboteurs just waiting for a command from Tokyo to overwhelm America’s war-making infrastructure along the Western seaboard. To forestall this widely held belief, the government built 25 prison camps to incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry living in California, Oregon, and Washington — without proof of guilt, due process, or legal representation. They remained there for over three years until WWII came to an end and they were released from their imprisonment to begin the difficult process of rebuilding their lives.
Japanese-American citizens and immigrants were valued for the goods and services they provided, but reviled because they looked like the enemy; or, perhaps, more crudely, they were not white persons and therefore a threat to the superior Anglo-Saxon white race.
In the decades since World War II, millions of people have entered the U.S. illegally, most crossing the southern border from Mexico looking for better lives and economic opportunity. As it was before WWII, two mutually exclusive ideas exist: the need for workers in the building trades, agriculture, factories, and homes versus the xenophobia that perceives these non-white immigrants as a threat to American society, jobs, safety, and a burden on tax-payer services.
As in 1942, there is a triggering event that has unleashed this latent racism – the appearance of Donald Trump onto the political stage. And, as in 1942, Americans are again considering a proposal to build prison camps to incarcerate a targeted ethnic class of people.
What would it take to execute “the largest deportation operation in American history”?
Let’s assume a ‘worse case’ scenario: the deportation of all persons residing in the U.S. illegally. It’s estimated that there are approximately 11,000,000 undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. today. The Trump administration, therefore, may plan to deport 11 million persons in its 4-year term in office. Let’s assume that government would need to detain 2.75 million people identified for deportation each year while it prepares to remove them from the country.
What would it cost to do this?
Does the government know where all these 11 million targeted persons live? It does not. But for now, let’s assume the government does know and continue.
I have extensively researched and written about The Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, one of the 25 prison camps built to intern Japanese-Americans in 1942. Heart Mountain was designed to house 11,000 persons and cost $5.1 million (in 1942 dollars) to build. Due to inflation, it would take $98.6 million to build a Heart Mountain-like prison today. But it will require 250 camps like the Heart Mountain facility to house 2.75 million undocumented immigrants (2.75 million/11,000) detained for deportation each year. The total cost to build the number of camps needed is $24.7 billion.
Once detained in these camps, people need to be fed. If it costs $8.70 to feed one person for one day; it will cost $23.9 million ($8.70 x 2.75 million people) to feed them for ONE DAY. If these immigrants are removed from their camps on a linear basis throughout the year, then the total cost to feed them for a year would be $4.35 billion for a year. To feed all 11,000,000 of them over a four-year period would cost $17.4 billion.
The Trump administration says it plans to deport the immigrants by flying them back to their country of origin. What will this cost?
Assume that aircraft like the Boeing 737-800, with a capacity of 189 passengers will be used, and assume the total roundtrip miles per trip to a home country is 3,300 miles. The 737-800 flies at 558 mph. It costs $12,000/hour to operate a 737-800. Thus, a sortie (one roundtrip per plane) would cost $71,000. To fly 2.75 million undocumented immigrants on 737-800s would require 14,550 sorties (2.75 million total / 189 passengers per trip) at $71,000 per sortie, or $1.03 billion each year. For the entire population – $4.13 billion.
Totaling it all up a grand total of $46.2 billion is the result ($24.7 real estate; $17.4 billion subsistence; transportation $4.13). Missing from this total is the manpower cost.
Virtual armies of workers will be required for this massive four-year deportation program; maintenance people to support and maintain those 250 detention facilities, cooks to prepare food for them, doctors, nurses, technicians to provide health services and security personnel. And the legal personnel, if they are even part of this deportation plan (none were provided for the Japanese in 1942); judges, clerks, lawyers will be needed to hold the hearings, make judgements and implement the legal rights provided undocumented persons.
The personnel costs would be enormous. Let’s assume these costs are six to eight times the physical costs listed above. It may cost between $280 and $370 billion to employ all these people.
A total cost to the U.S. taxpayer in the neighborhood of $330 billion to half a trillion dollars would have to be expended to export 11 million illegal immigrants.
What does this grand total mean? It means that it is practically impossible to detain and deport this many people in four years – impossible, probably, given any reasonable time.
I suggest a practical, quick, humane, and fiscally rational solution to removing these 11 million undocumented immigrants from the country – document them.
Sure, they have entered the U.S. illegally and “amnesty” is anathema to a lot of folks, but it solves the stated problem cheaply, quickly and most of all, humanely. The undocumented immigrants could earn a visa or green card based on some sort of point system. A person gets so-many points if he/she has no criminal record; another few points if he/she lived here for ten or more years; more if they hold a job; etc.
Document them, issue visas, and provide eligible immigrants a pathway to citizenship. The U.S. is a nation of immigrants. Given the effort most of these people have expended to come to this country I predict they will be among the finest citizens this nation has ever known.
Bernard Murphy and James Murphy 