Migrant deport cost calculated
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 09d95.html

Web Posted: 07/27/2005 12:00 AM CDT Hernán Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer A liberal Washington group's new study concluded the federal government most likely will never call for a massive roundup and deportation of millions of illegal immigrants. Here's why: $230 billion.
That's easily how much the process could cost over five years, according to a report from the Center for American Progress released Tuesday.
The study determined that finding, arresting, jailing and deporting the country's 10 million undocumented migrants would cost at least $41.2 billion a year.
And even then, further border-protection costs to keep out future illegal crossers will run $3 billion annually "in perpetuity," according to the report.
The point was to show that a mass-deportation policy would be a total boondoggle, the report concluded.
But the only waste was that of the authors' time and money spent on researching a useless matter, critics countered.
Rajeev Goyle, a senior analyst at the Center for American progress who co-authored the 18-page study with David Jaeger, an economics professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., said no one before had quantified the issue.
Now realizing it would be an impossible task, people can focus on more realistic ways of solving the immigration dilemma, Goyle said.
"This report will show the false allure of mass deportation," he said. "We're happy to put the final nail on the coffin on that notion."
But leading advocates of immigration restrictions asked: What notion?
No serious organization pushing limits on immigration has called for rounding everybody up and sending them home, they said.
Groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform and NumbersUSA advocate for stepping up deportations from current levels â€â€