When Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail that he’d deliver mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, he never mentioned charging taxpayers for it. He didn’t even lie promise that Mexico would pay for it!
Turns out, we will.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, confirmed on Christmas Eve how much the war on migrants will cost. “Eighty-six billion [dollars] is a start,” Homan said without mentioning an end. “We need at least that.”
Which is weird because Trump has deployed two billionaires to figure out how his government can spend less. Like, two trillion less.
In his appearance on Fox, Homan said the investment will save Americans money in the long run because they’ll no longer be paying for flights and medical care. The roundups and deportations, however, will require paying for flights and medical care.
Also, Homan’s concept of paying for things now to invest and save later runs counter to Republican philosophy. They want, for instance, to cut spending on IRS agents, even though IRS salaries pay for themselves every April 15.
And none of Trump’s people have even started to talk about the costs from the supply-chain and production disruptions being caused by just the threat of mass deportations.
