The Train They Call the City of New Orleans

Bryan Caplan links to some sobering statistics from DHS. When it comes to deporting people, the US government distinguishes between "removals" and "returns." Removals are compulsory, while returns are voluntary. Caplan notes that "'voluntary returns' are about as voluntary as the payment of taxes." (More here.)

Year	Removed	Returned	Total	Comparison
2010	387,242	476,405	863,647	New Haven, CT (862,477)
2009	395,165	586,164	981,329	Tucson, AZ (980,263)
2008	359,795	811,263	1,171,058	New Orleans, LA (1,167,764)
2007	319,382	891,390	1,210,772	Hartford, CT (1,212,381)
2006	280,974	1,043,381	1,324,355	Maine (1,328,361)
2005	246,431	1,096,920	1,343,351	Jacksonville, FL (1,345,596)
2004	240,665	1,166,576	1,407,241	Hawaii (1,360,301)
2003	211,098	945,294	1,156,392	Buffalo, NY (1,135,509)
2002	165,168	1,012,116	1,177,284	Raleigh, NC (1,130,490)
2001	189,026	1,349,371	1,538,397	Milwaukee, WI (1,555,908)
2000	188,467	1,675,876	1,864,343	West Virginia (1,852,994)
1999	183,114	1,574,863	1,757,977	Charlotte, NC (1,758,038)
1998	174,813	1,570,127	1,744,940	Indianapolis, IN (1,756,241)
1997	114,432	1,440,684	1,555,116	Idaho (1,567,582)
1996	69,680	1,573,428	1,643,108	Virginia Beach, VA (1,671,683)

I, for one, am amazed at the level of deportations. Maybe I just haven't paid enough attention before now, but the numbers are truly sobering. The number of people we deport every single year is staggering. Caplan reproduces the data going back to 1980; the DHS has data going back to 1892. Here, I've decided to show the last 15 years, plus a state or city (MSA, actually) of comparable size to the number of people deported that year.

Now I'm aware that these people are by definition illegals, and many of them illegal for good reason. At the same time, many are not. Many of these people are business owners who would be employing Americans right now if we hadn't kicked them out of the country. Even those that aren't business owners would be creating jobs by increasing demand.

If there is anyone reading this who believes we really are better for having deported more than 20 million people over the last 15 years, answer me this. Why stop there? If deporting 863,000 people in 2010 was good for our economy and our country, why not also deport the 862,000 in New Haven? If deporting almost a million immigrants creates jobs for Americans, wouldn't deporting almost a million Connecticuters have the same effect?