Hefty bill slams ruby red state voters as Trump policy pricetag goes through roof: report
Donald Trump participates in a meeting at the White House on Thursday. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
August 13, 2026
Tennessee taxpayers are paying about $1,961 each to fund the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies, according to an analysis of the federal budget released by the Economic Policy Institute.
The think tank developed an online tool that calculates the average taxpayer’s share of the estimated $268.9 billion cost of deportations through the end of President Donald Trump’s term.
The calculator draws on IRS income data, estimates by the Institute for Policy Studies of projected federal expenditure on deportation and other data to estimate the price tag for federal taxpayers in every U.S. city, county, and state, and includes written analyses of its findings. Tennessee’s taxpayers, in total, will foot nearly than $4.5 billion of the total deportation costs, it shows.
The left-leaning think tank also calculated potential tradeoffs in the federal government’s immigration enforcement spending priorities, estimating what the same level of funding could instead be used for: covering the salaries of 21,401 firefighters, or funding Medicaid healthcare for 246,018 patients or the hiring 18,750 teachers.
Gordon Lafer, professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center and research associate at the Economic Policy Institute said the organization developed the tool because “we think it’s important for people to know exactly how much money is being taken out of their communities to pay for mass deportations.”
“At a time when so many people around the country are struggling to support their families, federal spending is focused on the wrong priorities,” he said. In every town, county, and state in the country, the funds being spent on deportation could instead go to keep many more children and elderly people on health insurance, or to put more teachers in school, or to provide better care for veterans, or to prevent cuts to food stamps. Instead, that money is being wasted on mass deportations.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security provided a statement in response to questions about the data that said “it’s ridiculous that investments to enforce the law are making headlines while the devastating consequences of breaking it went completely ignored under the Biden administration.”
The spokesperson said illegal immigration costs taxpayers over $150 billion each year — a disputed figure that varies depending on methodology and ideology.
The statement included a message to immigrants in the country without legal status to “take control of their departure with the CBP Home App” to request a $2,600 stipend and free flight out of the United States.
“Deportations are absolutely vital to stop the bleeding,” the spokesperson said.
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