The Cost of Immigration Enforcement and Border Security

AIC, Aug. 14, 2024

"Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, the federal government has spent an estimated $409 billion on the agencies that carry out immigration enforcement, and tens of billions more on border barriers and other immigration enforcement-related infrastructure projects. As Congress continues to increase enforcement-related funding to new record highs, it is important to review how much money has already been spent on these initiatives, and what outcomes have been produced. ... Even with record level spending on enforcement, enforcement alone is not sufficient to address the challenges  irregular migration brings. It also has significant unintended consequences; according to U.S. Border Patrol statistics, the Southwest border witnessed more than two deaths per day in FY 2022. Deaths have only increased since then reaching record levels in FY 2023 and 2024. All of these efforts that have accumulated in the name of security, however, do not necessarily measure border security properly, or secure the border. Critically, increases in funding for immigration enforcement have significantly outpaced funding for the United States humanitarian protection and adjudication systems. In FY 2024, Congress provided $3.43 billion to immigration detention centers alone. By contrast, Congress appropriated just $840 million for the entire immigration court system, and funded $424 million to the entirety of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ refugee and asylum division. In other words, the United States spent nearly three times as much on immigration detention alone than it did on the entire adjudication system for removal and asylum claims. This consequently—leads to skyrocketing case backlogs and years of delay.  It is past time for the United States to turn away from strictly focusing on enforcement and deterrence-based policies and instead focus on a more balanced approach that provides the resources necessary to build a functional humanitarian protection system while balancing security interests."