A recent Wall Street Journal report suggested that implementing President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation plans could cost over $315 billion. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) dismissed this number as "a red herring" and "wildly inaccurate" in a recent appearance on Fox Business's Big Money Show, saying the money saved in the long run and self-deportations would lower the costs.
As Rep. Biggs explained, the $315 billion price tag is "a static score," and costs should be understood as "dynamic" because "you have to take into account how much money you are saving on healthcare, education, transportation, and kind of figure that out."
Moreover, he reiterated that Congress has "a mandate" given by the American people to follow through with Trump's deportation plans, adding that the actual cost of their implementation would be much lower, as "the numbers I have heard are about a third of that [$315 billion], somewhere in the $100 billion range. But you will also change some policies, which will actually lower that cost as well. So the $315 billion number, I think, is kind of a red herring number; the actual number is going to be somewhere closer to $100 billion."
One of the Big Money Show hosts further suggested that debating the cost of mass deportations was a red herring, as the government's job was enforcing its laws and protecting national security.
Rep. Biggs agreed, saying, "$300 billion is wildly inaccurate" and that the American people want the law enforced.
"And when you do so," the Arizona Congressman continued, "all of the dynamics of fewer healthcare costs, fewer education costs, fewer transportation costs, fewer detention costs, you start moving people out. There will be self-deportation as well, and none of that was in that [the Wall Street Journal's report]. That is why I say it is a red herring to start talking about massive amounts of costs. The reality is, you can get it done and deliver this."
