President-elect Trump’s deportation plan is being touted as a “cost-saving opportunity” for Americans

President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration plan will be a “cost saver” for the American people, former acting ICE Director Tom Homan told Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, responding to a Wall Street Journal warning that it is the largest mass deportation effort in the story could bear a high price.

“[The Biden administration] pays for free airline tickets across the country, free hotel rooms at $500 a night, free education, free medical care, in perpetuity,” he said.

“President Trump’s plan will save taxpayers money over time… That’s what they are doing.” [the Biden administration] I pay $500 a night for hotel rooms in New York City. There are now empty ICE beds available for $127 a night, so President Trump’s plans will save taxpayers money over time.”

DONALD TRUMP FEARS THE COUNTRY IS BEING ‘POISONED’ BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WHILE HURRICANE HELENE’S VICTIMS SUFFER

Homan and other leading voices on immigration have been critical of the Biden-Harris administration over the past four years as illegal immigrants crossed the border in record numbers, straining resources in communities across the United States

Under her tenure, areas such as New York City, Boston and Chicago have become hotbeds for migrants. In New York City, for example, the once-iconic Roosevelt Hotel became synonymous with the second Ellis Island as it transformed into a migrant hub and housed illegal immigrants to the brim.

Trump made immigration an integral issue in his campaign and reiterated his calls for a border wall and mass deportations, as he had called for in his previous campaigns.

The Wall Street Journal wrote Friday about Trump’s plan, which could include a border emergency declaration, building a wall and deportation.

“A critical short-term priority is finding the money to do it. An estimate by the American Immigration Council, a liberal immigration group, suggests that an operation to deport everyone living in the U.S. illegally could cost over $968 billion over a decade, or about $88 billion a year “ says the article.

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Asylum-seeking migrants wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol after crossing from Mexico at a makeshift camp next to the U.S. border wall in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on December 13, 2023. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“Any deportation effort requires enormous resources to hire more federal agents to identify and arrest immigrants, allocate space to detain them, and procure aircraft to fly them to other countries.”

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Scott Bessent, CEO of Key Square Capital Management, who appeared on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Homan, also insisted that the status quo is more costly than Trump’s alternative.

“Let’s talk about the human cost. We have 100,000 fentanyl deaths per year because of the porous border. We have increased crime. We have the underlying fear that the American people have. You can’t put a price on that,” he said.

“But I’ll also tell you what we’re going to do here… Donald Trump has made the greatest political comeback in history, and I think we’re on the verge of an economic golden age in the next four years.” Years in which “We can have a growth agenda where we can deregulate, lower energy prices and lower interest rates, and that will drive growth like we haven’t seen in years.”