"You Can’t Deport 11 Million People" Statement Reflects Mistaken Image

The frequently heard comment "You just can't deport 11 million people" reflects a mistaken mental image of the illegal alien population.

In the minds of, or the unconscious of, those making that statement is a vision of a static population of 11 million people, all in the same big room, all staying put, with no one arriving or leaving. I call this the stadium model.

Think of the Super Bowl at half time. There are 100,000-plus people in the stadium, and they all want to stay for the rest of the game. There are, at the moment, no comings and goings.

If the police had to clear the stadium by arresting and removing specific individuals one at a time — as is the case with deportation — it would be an impossible task.

But the illegal alien population is not like the Super Bowl audience; it is a churning group, some newly arrived, some here for a long time, and many thinking about, planning to, or actually leaving through a wide variety of exits.

If we could limit the number of new entrants and make it less attractive for illegal ones to stay and make it easier and more attractive to leave, then we could decrease the size of the illegal alien population without any need to deport them all, as the graphic below illustrates...

In short, we should make it harder for illegals and potential illegals to get into the country, less pleasant for them to stay here in illegal status, and more attractive to leave.

If all this were done simultaneously the illegal alien population would start to shrink, without any need to deport all... of them...

In conclusion, the illegal alien population is a dynamic one and could be reduced substantially over the next few years if the government were to bring more pressure to bear on it in an organized manner by expanding interior enforcement while, at the same time, narrowing the inflow gates for that population, and broadening the outflow gates.