Logistics of deporting more than 10.5 million undocumented immigrants
OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - It is one thing to say that you are going to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants.
But, doing it is a huge logistical issue. Let's go to the calculator.
There are 10.5 million undocumented immigrants liviing in the United States.
Greyhound, North America's largest motor coach system, has 1,114 buses with a total 58,000 seats to serve its customers.
Greyhound would have to leave the commercial bus business for a long while to go into the deportation business. To deport all those who are undocumented, each bus would have to make 180 trips to Mexico or beyond. Many of those trips would be multiple day trips. All tolled it would take 200,520 trips over a period of several years, assuming all those people can be found, arrested and housed until a bus is available.
What if we used big airliners?
There are 240 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets in the entire world. Each is certified to carry a maximum of 853 passengers maximum. So, if you could round up those privately owned aircrafts, each plane would have to make 1,758 trips; 428,400 trips in all. That process would take two to four years, again assuming all those people can be found, arrested and housed until a plane is available.
The costs and logistics, even if this were possible, would be astronomical.