Photo by Jeanson Wong
Note: It’s hard to fully encapsulate the effects of the Trump Administration’s mass deportation campaign on individuals, communities, and taxpayers. This effort seeks to summarize some of the most severe practices and their impacts.
Ensuring public safety from violent criminals is crucial. However, of the 400,000 individuals detained by ICE from January 2025 to March 2026, just 5 percent were violent offenders. Many were present legally, including citizens, while others were undergoing a lawful immigration process. Of the 65,765 people currently in detention, 73.6 percent lack a criminal conviction.
No ICE deportation officers have died on duty since the agency’s 2003 founding. While 250 individuals have been convicted of assaulting ICE personnel, details on any resulting injuries are unavailable.
SOCIAL COSTS
During the first 500 days of Trump’s second administration, a record 52 people died in ICE custody, often from preventable causes like an untreated tooth infection that turned septic.
This excludes individuals killed by ICE officers outside detention facilities, such as Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot at peaceful demonstrations, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, killed during his commute to work.
In 2025, some detainees were sent to the notorious CECOT Terrorist Confinement Center in El Salvador. In the US, detainees have recorded cases of abuse, rotten food, contaminated water, and other disturbing conditions.
Since its inception, the Dilley Family Detention Center has detained over 1,750 children, frequently violating the 20-day child detention threshold established in 1997 by the Flores Settlement Agreement. Emergency medical teams were called nearly a dozen times within six months for severe conditions like fractures, respiratory distress, and high fevers.
In February 2025, three pediatricians and over 3,900 medical professionals from 49 states urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately release all detained children, citing serious concerns for their long-term physical and mental health.
Detainees are also being denied due process, as required by the Constitution. Courts ruled against the Trump Administration in 90% of ICE arrest and detention cases brought by DHS, including that of a nursing mother with active refugee status.
A federal judge found DHS unlawfully revoked status for thousands of CBP One App users. Simultaneously, the Trump Administration canceled TPS and opposes citizenship for DACA recipients and US-born children of unauthorized parents.
The situation will likely get worse as the DHS closes the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. Instead, ICE will investigate its own agents.
These enforcement actions also cause pain for those not detained. They instill a fear of leaving home for work, school, food, or medical care, while deterring law enforcement contact and destabilizing families. Additionally, nearby local businesses face severe declines in patronage, threatening many with closure.
ECONOMIC COSTS
With $85B in new funding ($45B for expanded detention over four years), ICE’s budget exceeds $200B, making it the highest-funded US law enforcement agency. These tax dollars were diverted from such social services as medical research and environmental protection, as well as military and other law enforcement activities.
From December 2025 to February 2026, Operation MetroSurge deployed thousands of ICE and CBP personnel to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, causing nearly $700M in economic disruptions, security outlays, and lost income (and costing Good and Pretti their lives).
A University of Colorado Boulder working paper, “Labor Market Impacts of ICE Activity in Trump 2.0,” notes native workers rarely replace dismissed immigrants because the immigrants’ jobs are typically lower-paid, more dangerous, and less reliable. This leads to layoffs and hiring freezes for native-born workers, suggesting immigrants complement rather than supplant them. The economic consequences accumulate: Unfulfilled housing contracts lead to fewer homes, higher prices, and decreased demand for home furnishings and appliances.
