Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for the "mandatory return," or deportation, of all undocumented immigrants from the U.S, and it's a stance that was reiterated during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." The price tag to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, however, could be an obstacle for pro-Trump supporters.

In his immigration plan, Trump stated, "All criminal aliens must be returned to their home countries, a process which can be aided by canceling any visas to foreign countries which will not accept their own criminals, and making it a separate and additional crime to commit an offense while here illegally."

Further, he proposed all detained immigrants to return to their native country.

The cost of deporting approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. has been questioned and estimates have shown expenses totaling $114 billion.

Philip Wolgin, associate director for immigration policy for the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, wrote that a mass deportation plan would cost approximately $10,070 per person, which totals to $114 billion for the 11.3 million.

"Just at its face, it's absolutely not realistic," Wolgin told Latin Post about the mass deportation proposal.

"There's almost no one actually arguing for mass deportation and yet here we are with another proposal that's quite frankly being taken seriously by the Republican Party to deport every single unauthorized immigrant, which is economically a complete boondoggle as well as something that's going to tear apart families and communities and I think it's a terrible plan for the U.S," Wolgin said.

CAP's $114 billion estimate includes costs to locate each undocumented individual, their detention, immigration court process and finally deportation from the U.S.

The American Action Forum (AAF), a center-right policy institute organization, released its own estimates in March. AAF's mass deportation estimates range between $419.6 billion and $619.4 billion in a span of 20 years, but Wolgin said current resources have typically allowed for 300,000 to 400,000 deportations, per year.

Voto Latino President and CEO Maria Teresa Kumar said Trump's plan is the opposite to what Americans want.

"Donald Trump proposes that we deport 11 million hardworking immigrants," said Kumar in a statement. "What he fails to see is that the same party whose primary he is trying to win, has shown overwhelming support for creating a path to citizenship, and leaving the outdated 'let's depart them all' mentality in the past."

A Gallup poll from earlier this month showed most Republicans prefer undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. to become citizens, if they meet requirements over time." Fifty percent of Republican respondents told Gallup that immigrants should stay, although 31 percent favored the "deport all" option.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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