The task of sending a plane with deportees to Venezuela or Cuba has become a real headache, said Mario Agundez, who worked for 25 years in Immigration and was in charge of these repatriations. If former President Trump manages to overcome the legal obstacles, he will face enormous costs to fulfill his promise.
According to Agundez, asylum seekers have the right to remain in the United States until a judge resolves their case, which prevents immigration authorities from acting before a deportation order. As of December 2023, immigration courts had more than two million pending cases, complicating the mass deportations announced by Trump.
Agundez emphasizes that deporting a foreigner is not a quick process, as U.S. immigration laws allow individuals who entered irregularly to defend their cases. Additionally, the cost of detention and maintenance while they await repatriation adds to the challenge.
The estimated cost to deport about 13 million undocumented individuals over more than a decade amounts to $315 billion, according to the American Immigration Council. Despite the difficulties, Agundez predicts that Trump will attempt to fulfill his promise, which will entail a high cost for the undocumented community.
Even a single repatriation flight of 120 people to a Central American country cost an average of $110,000 last year. Agundez warns that immigrants can be detained indefinitely if they are not repatriated immediately. Trump has considered invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an extreme measure that has drawn criticism from human rights groups and Latino organizations.
The proposal to use this law in peacetime to expel foreigners without following due legal process has been condemned. Agundez highlights that ICE agents, responsible for detaining immigrants, heavily depend on police agencies to identify undocumented individuals accused or convicted of crimes, which adds another obstacle to the deportation process.
