By Michelle Brané and Joe Philip ShepardShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberThis fall, federal agents and local deputies raided a workplace in New York. Dozens of workers were arrested, including “Jaime,” who was working legally with federal authorization. (His name has been changed and details identifying his workplace have been left out for safety reasons.)
Jaime wasn’t hiding from the law—he was following it. He had been granted special immigrant juvenile status, placing him on a path to a green card. When he was arrested, Jaime was only weeks away from being eligible to apply. Despite showing his work permit, he was detained and placed in deportation proceedings.
...The almost two months he spent in detention took an enormous emotional toll on him, his family and his community. It also imposed a steep financial burden to taxpayers, local governments and private businesses.
The Price Tag of Detention
Approximately 75 agents were involved in the raid, including nine local deputies who earn up to $81,000 a year and ICE agents paid up to $89,000 plus $50,000 signing bonuses. Add in overtime, armored vehicles, dogs and a mobile command center, one raid can cost tens of thousands.
After his arrest, Jaime was flown from New York to Texas. ICE’s data shows charter flights average $8,600 per hour—roughly $25,000 for one three-hour trip. These transfers serve little purpose but add significant financial and human costs, separating people from their lawyers and family.
Then comes detention. DHS pays about $190 per detainee per day. Jaime was finally released in late October. By then, he had spent 58 days behind bars, costing over $11,000. He was released when an immigration judge terminated his deportation proceedings so he could take a medical exam required to finish his pending application for a green card. Even the presiding judge admonished DHS and called Jaime’s continued detention a poor use of taxpayer money.
Detention costs are skyrocketing under new federal policies that prevent detainees from being released on bond even if, like Jaime, they have pending legal status, clean records and stable jobs. Had bond been an option, he could have been released weeks earlier, saving thousands.
Court and Legal Costs
Detaining Jaime also clogged an overburdened immigration court system. His first deportation case was dismissed years ago when he gained special immigration juvenile status, but DHS re-opened it. Each hearing requires government attorneys, judges and support staff. DHS estimates that it spends $850 per removal case. Jaime was driven 600 miles roundtrip for each hearing.
Jaime had legal support from Cornell Law School’s Migration and Human Rights Program, where faculty and students devoted hundreds of unpaid hours to his defense—time that could have gone to helping others.
Lost Revenue and Broken Businesses
Before his detention, Jaime earned $22.50 an hour and paid federal and state taxes, revenue the government lost while he was in custody.
Immigrants contribute $580 billion in taxes per year. Mass detention and deportations shrink that base, harming programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Jaime’s detention also harmed his employer, a family-owned business. After the raid, the company was forced to reduce output to 25 percent of capacity and could not fulfill orders. In communities already struggling with labor shortages, raids cripple local economies.
Meanwhile, Jaime lost more than the income that supported his family. While in detention, he was denied food, held in cramped conditions and was told he could not see a lawyer.
Who Really Pays?
Detaining each immigrant like Jaime costs tens of thousands in law enforcement, transportation, detention and court expenses—on top of the losses to their employers, communities and in taxes.
It’s a staggering price for a policy that achieves little besides cruelty. Every day, immigrants like Jaime are caught up in similar raids, often without due process or regard for their legal status.
As of September 21, out of the almost 60,000 people ICE had in custody, 71.5 percent had no criminal conviction. That’s almost 43,000 people with clean records who, we could say, are in custody in a situation similar to Jaime’s on any given day. At $190 a day per detainee, that amounts to more than $8 million per day, without taking into account the cost of flights, ICE and law enforcement staff, judicial expenses and more.
In Jaime’s case, the total cost of his two-month detention was roughly $14,000 for detention and other costs. If those 43,000 people with clean records in ICE custody are held for a similar time, that amounts to $602 million.
Mass detention is an expensive illusion of enforcement. It doesn’t make us safer or stronger. It just ensures that everyone—taxpayers, workers and families alike—pays the price.
Michelle Brané is a non-resident fellow at the Cornell Law Migration and Human Rights Program and the executive director of Together and Free. She served under the Biden administration as the immigration detention ombudsman and the executive director of the Family Reunification Task Force.
Joe Philip Shepardis a juris doctor candidate at Cornell Law School and a member of the law school’s Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic.
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.
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