Citizenship vs. Deportation: Why We’re Spending Billions to Avoid Solutions
Let’s start with a simple, almost silly thought experiment:
Pretend for a moment that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is actually about immigration enforcement — not theatrics, not politics, not punishment theater. If that were true, then the staggering amount of money, manpower, and power put into the system should produce something that looks like a functioning immigration system — not a metaphor for a runaway bridal registry.
Except it doesn’t.
The U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on immigration enforcement since DHS was created — and that’s before we get to the tens of billions poured into detention centers and border infrastructure. Meanwhile, the system that even allows someone to apply for legal status is overwhelmed: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is sitting on over 11 million pending applications with processing times stretching into years.
If immigration enforcement were an NFL team with this kind of stat line, we’d call it “Terrible on Defense, Terrible on Offense, and Terrible on Special Teams.” Yet for people whose lives depend on this system — often literally — this isn’t a joke. It’s a crisis.
The Problem Isn’t People — It’s Process
Right now, immigration policy treats existence as a problem and policy failure as success.
If someone is undocumented, the default assumption in many enforcement cultures is:
“We’ll chase them, arrest them, and maybe deport them.”
That’s both expensive and inefficient. For example, projecting a mass deportation campaign to remove millions of people from the U.S. could cost hundreds of billions more, shrink the labor force, slash GDP, and even reduce Social Security revenue.
Meanwhile, programs designed to streamline legal departure — like cash incentives for voluntary self-deportation — are framed as cost savings compared to enforcement, yet those too cost taxpayers money up front.
In other words: we are spending a fortune to avoid building infrastructure that actually works.
Meet Two Real People (Because Systems Should Have Faces)
Let’s humanize this. Because data points are fine, but real lives make a story clear.
1. The Exhausted Parent
Imagine someone who entered the U.S. legally on a work or student visa. Over the years, they build a life, have children, pay taxes, and contribute to their community. They try, repeatedly, to adjust their status or apply for citizenship. They file forms. They pay fees. They show up to interviews. They wait.
And they wait. And wait. Because the system — legally required to process claims — sits on over 11 million pending applications. It’s not that this person isn’t trying; it’s that the system treats pursuit of legality like a marathon with no finish line.
That exhaustion — the gradual depletion of time, money, and hope — is a structural failure, not a moral one.
2. The Seasonal Worker
Now imagine someone who comes to the U.S. seasonally — harvesting crops, helping restaurants through busy months, or filling a hole in the labor market most Americans don’t want. Legally? Complicated. Undocumented? Often yes, because the legal pathways are slow and limited.
This person complies with the law as best they know how, leaves when required, and comes back because there’s work and because American agriculture and service industries need that labor. When the system fails them, they take risk not because they’re criminals but because the options for legally participating are so narrow.
Both stories share a common flaw:
The process is harder than the problem it’s supposed to solve.
What Success Should Look Like — Not What It Looks Like Now
Let’s define success before we talk solutions:
A good immigration system should:
Reduce undocumented populations over time
Increase legal work authorization and stability
Reduce enforcement costs and violent encounters
Honor due process and fairness
Right now, we have something looking more like a “deportation-industrial complex” than a system of shared citizenship and legal clarity. Congress recently approved hundreds of billions in enforcement and detention funding, with large allocations to ICE and border infrastructure, even as calls for accountability go unanswered.
Meanwhile, backlogs in immigration courts and USCIS mean people literally spend years waiting for a decision that determines their whole life. As one analysis notes, immigration courts can take four and a half years or more just to decide an asylum claim.
That’s not enforcement. That’s attrition.
What Better Looks Like — Practical, Not Idealistic
Here’s where your early thoughts intersect with what a functional system might actually do.
Simplify the Path to Citizenship
Right now, the path is:
Expensive
Complex
Time-consuming
That means only the well-off can navigate it well. A clearer, affordable, and predictable path would reduce uncertainty and help the system actually work as intended.
Employer Accountability
Undocumented labor exists partly because demand exists. Let employers sponsor workers with clear responsibilities and penalties for abuse. This targets the demand side rather than just chasing the supply.
Due Process Before Enforcement
Replace surprise street raids with scheduled legal infrastructure:
Legal clinics
Appointments
Transparent classification
Enforcement should be reactive — like IRS audits — not militarized and unpredictable.
Tiered Consequences
Not everyone should be treated the same:
Administrative violations → paperwork and deadlines
Repeated refusal → loss of privileges
Violent or dangerous behavior → appropriate legal response
Not every non-citizen is a threat, and the law should reflect that.
Conclusion: The Costs of Our Current Choice
We spend enormous sums to punish presence and enforce absence. Yet the system that grants legal status isn’t functioning — with massive backlogs and delays — and people languish in uncertainty. If the goal is order, stability, and dignity, the current path is an expensive detour.
Money spent on enforcement and detention simply because we refuse to fix the underlying process is money that could instead expedite citizenship, ensure fair work pathways, and reduce fear and violence.
No one gains from a system that treats existence as guilt and compliance as exhaustion.
