There are many reasons to oppose the cruelty of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s mass detentions and deportations, but more attention needs to be paid to the opportunity costs of paying for one of the best-funded military organizations in the world.

What else could we do with $27 billion dollars? The Economic Policy Institute, the University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center, and professor Gordon Lafer have done us a great service by creating a compelling tool that shows what we are giving up by paying to terrorize our neighbors: tax refunds, housing, food, healthcare, the environment. Most of us would choose to spend this money in another way.

Beyond funding today’s inhumane immigration system, we are building a capacity for terror that can be used elsewhere. Such forces always start with the most vulnerable among us, but they move on from there. In preparation for November, DHS has already been tasked with undermining elections.

The Department of Homeland Security should be opposed for what it is, what we could be doing instead, and for what it will become.

John F. Helmer
Eugene