What components (detention, legal process, domestic transfers) make up the $17,121 average DHS removal cost?
Executive summary
The $17,121 figure DHS cites as the "average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an undocumented immigrant" is presented by the agency as a single per‑person average but DHS has not published a detailed line‑item breakdown in the materials provided to the public [1]. Reporting by advocates, reporters, and think tanks shows that the total typically aggregates multiple discrete cost categories — arrest/transport, detention (bed‑rate), legal processing/administration, and international repatriation and domestic transfers — and that detention/monitoring is the largest and most variable component [2] [3] [4].
1. Arrest and initial processing — the visible first leg
DHS’s language frames the average as covering the cost "to arrest" someone, which includes frontline Border Patrol or ICE arrests, booking, short‑term custody processing and initial transportation to detention facilities; DHS has described the $17,121 number as covering arrest, detention and removal but has not provided a public line‑item breakout for those arrest/activity costs [1]. Monthly enforcement tables exist for encounters, arrests and book‑ins that could feed a more detailed accounting, but DHS has not released a decomposition of the per‑case arithmetic in the announcements that cite the figure [5] [6].
2. Detention — the largest, most variable chunk
Analysts repeatedly identify detention bed‑rates as the dominant driver of deportation costs and the biggest source of variance: calculating a "bed rate" divides ICE Custody Operations spending across mandated beds and days, and alternative‑to‑detention programs cost orders of magnitude less than congregate detention [4]. The National Immigration Forum’s work shows detention can cost roughly $164 per day under one DHS budget justification scenario versus ATDs that can cost as little as cents-to‑teens per day, underscoring why length of stay and use of alternatives largely determine per‑removal averages [3] [4].
3. Legal processing and administrative overhead — quieter but real
Removal also requires administrative and legal processing — from case initiation by Enforcement and Removal Operations through immigration court dockets, counsel systems, detention facility administration, case records and appeals — elements the American Immigration Council model groups under "legal processing" when calculating mass‑removal costs [2]. DHS statements bundling "arrest, detain and remove" invoke this stage implicitly, but public DHS releases tied to the $17,121 claim do not supply a public breakdown showing how much goes to adjudication, case management, or legal logistics [1] [6].
4. Domestic transfers and international repatriation flights — the physical removal
The "remove" in DHS’s phrasing captures both domestic transfers (moving a detainee between facilities or to a departure point) and the international travel/repatriation leg; DHS reported operating hundreds of international repatriation flights in recent years, demonstrating a significant transportation cost component when removals are by charter or escorted commercial travel [7]. News coverage and policy analysts also note that repatriation flight costs and per‑person escort and logistics add materially to per‑removal accounting, especially for long‑haul or charter operations [7] [2].
5. Why the $17,121 figure is useful but incomplete — competing estimates and transparency gaps
Independent analyses produce much higher per‑removal estimates by using different assumptions about detention length, monitoring, and overhead — for example, Penn‑Wharton–cited studies produced per‑removal averages far above $17k, partly because they model longer detention and broader enforcement activity; the American Immigration Council explicitly breaks out arrest, detention, legal processing and removal in its mass‑deportation estimates and shows the total budgetary costs depend on those four steps [8] [2]. Reporters and researchers have noted DHS has not released the underlying data or arithmetic for its headline averages, leaving the public unable to reconcile DHS’s single number with component estimates in independent studies [6] [1].
Conclusion — what can be stated and what remains opaque
The $17,121 DHS headline is an aggregate that, according to DHS wording and independent modeling, is composed of arrest and initial processing, detention bed‑rates and monitoring, legal/administrative processing, and domestic transfers and international repatriation logistics — with detention identified by analysts as the biggest and most variable cost driver — but DHS has not published a public, itemized reconciliation that shows how much of the $17,121 falls into each bucket, so precise shares and assumptions remain opaque [1] [2] [3] [4] [7] [6].