A $222.5 million bill would dominate debate at Cincinnati City Hall. Yet that is Cincinnati’s estimated share of Washington’s mass-deportation campaign: about $2,308 per Cincinnati filer owing federal income tax after credits.
The figure comes from the Economic Policy Institute’s Cost of Deportations Calculator. It begins with the National Priorities Project’s estimate that Washington plans to spend $268.9 billion on mass deportation during Trump’s second term, then allocates that cost according to each community’s share of federal income taxes.
Because the IRS does not publish city tax totals, EPI apportions ZIP-code data among Census places; $222.5 million is an estimate, not a City Hall appropriation. Local officials cannot redirect it. It
is the bill Cincinnati taxpayers will help finance before counting the economic losses that follow when workers, consumers and taxpayers disappear.
The number is especially striking because Cincinnati has tried to draw a different line. In February, City Council restricted federal immigration agencies from using city property as staging areas or accessing city camera, drone and license plate reader data for civil enforcement except as required by law or a court. Cincinnati can protect its property and public-safety tools. It cannot keep residents’ federal taxes out of the dragnet.
That mismatch matters because the region is short of working-age people. The Cincinnati Regional Chamber ranks the region 17th among 20 peer metros in its share of residents ages 25 to 54. Only 38% of residents fall within those years.
Hamilton County’s figures sharpen the contradiction. The county gained just 559 residents between 2024 and 2025. International migration added about 3,000 people, while domestic migration cost the county roughly 4,700. Without newcomers from abroad, that modest growth would have become a decline.
Not every international migrant is undocumented; the foreign-born workforce includes naturalized citizens and people with lawful status. But an enforcement campaign this broad reaches beyond those ultimately removed. It destabilizes mixed-status families and employers, while the climate it creates can deter lawful workers and international students who have other places to go.
Immigrants already account for 7.6% of Greater Cincinnati’s employed workforce. Their leading fields include education and health services, manufacturing, and professional and business services. Driving workers away does not create nurses, machinists, or engineers. It leaves jobs unfilled, reduces consumer spending and narrows the tax base.
Supporters deserve a response. The federal government has a duty to enforce immigration law, and people who present genuine dangers should be priorities. The Department of Homeland Security also argues that unauthorized immigration imposes public costs. It told Axios that traditional deportations cost roughly $18,000 each, while its self-deportation program saves about $13,000 per removal.
But making each removal cheaper does not make an indiscriminate workforce policy economically sound. As of July 11, 70.6% of people in ICE detention had no criminal conviction. Many immigration cases involve civil status violations, such as overstaying a visa, rather than violent crime.
U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman and U.S. Sens. Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno should demand transparent accounting, focus enforcement on genuine public-safety threats and expand workable legal pathways for longtime residents and workers this region needs.
Cincinnati was right to keep local property and surveillance systems from becoming extensions of a civil immigration dragnet. Congress should bring the same discipline to federal spending. Washington should not make Cincinnati pay twice: once in taxes and again in lost workers, customers and neighbors.
Richard T. Herman is an Ohio immigration attorney, founder of Herman Legal Group, and a University of Cincinnati alum. He has practiced immigration law for more than 30 years, is the co-author of "Immigrant, Inc.: Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy," and writes regularly on immigration enforcement.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati can't afford Trump's mass deportation push | Opinion
