Our Post-Deportation Future

A lot of drivers in Los Angeles are now posting Google Maps and Waze screenshots of improved commutes as empirical evidence that deportations are working. No red lines at rush hour? Just thirty minutes from Calabasas to Century City? 

Big if true. Is this effect real? How many deportations did it take to perform this miracle?

According to Google AI, quite a few: “In June 2025, immigration judges in Los Angeles County completed 126,930 deportation cases, resulting in 45,902 removal orders and 3,676 voluntary departure orders, according to TRAC Immigration. This means that approximately 39.1% of the completed cases in June resulted in deportation, either through removal or voluntary departure.” 

In June, 1,600 people were captured by ICE for deportation; a relatively small number. After all, there are officially almost one MILLION illegal aliens in L.A. County alone—ten percent of the county’s total population—and that number is almost certainly too low to account for all the people who came in during the waning days of the catastrophic Biden presidency.

But is traffic actually better? According to my husband, who commutes east to west and back, it is not. His commute is zero percent improved. Your mileage may (literally) vary, but this is what he tells me. I wouldn’t know; I’m a work-at-home housewife. The farthest I go in a day is a mile to the grocery store and back.

But let’s say it’s true. What if a million Los Angeles residents really do leave? What would the city look like? 

First, here’s what it would not do: it would not make Los Angeles American again; that ship has sailed. Legal immigrants and their children now make up almost forty percent of the county’s total population. 

Would the price of houses go down? I doubt it. Most illegal immigrants are unlikely to be able to afford a single family home anywhere in the city. Native-born Los Angeles citizens who make six figures can’t afford one either!

Would our Department of Water and Power bill go down? Mine was $1,500 last month. If deportations could shrink my DWP bill, I’d apply for a job at ICE today, believe me.

Would crime go down? Somewhat, because most drug dealers, and the drugs, and home invasion gangs are from south of the border. But our homegrown gangs would keep the cops busy.

Now let’s set aside traffic, houses, and my outrageous water bill for a second. Going through with mass deportations that successfully ship large numbers of L.A.’s illegal immigrants and even some of their anchor children back to their countries will do one incredible thing: gut the terrible, awful, overpriced Los Angeles Unified School District. 

LAUSD employs 24,710 teachers and 49,231 “other employees,” i.e., teacher’s union bureaucrats. That’s 75,000 employees for 557,000 students. Their budget is an incredible $18.9 billion a year, and 30 to 40% of that total goes to educate the 30 to 40% of LAUSD students that have at least one illegal immigrant parent.

This is where our property tax money goes — to schools run by Marxists that many homeowners don’t even use, because they can’t. The few public schools in the L.A. area that are considered “good” are the ones where starter homes cost $2 million. 

If suddenly a lot fewer students showed up, there would be mass closures of low-performing schools, since many elementary schools are close to 99% Hispanic (so much for diversity). The political power of the local teacher’s union would wither as bureaucrats dwindled because of budget cuts. The school district is forced to fire tens of thousands of useless functionaries. Wholesome new charter schools bloom. Families are once again able to use their local public school, where English is once again the common language. The city starts to feel less like an international airport terminal and more like a city where people have a cherished shared identity: as Americans.

But Peachy, what about the housekeepers and gardeners and car washers? The housekeepers and gardeners I have employed in my adult life have been citizens. And I know a lot of citizen high schoolers who wash cars, clean houses, and mow lawns. In fact, just today a friend emailed our mom group asking if anyone needed their house cleaned by a young college girl home for the summer. 

Americans will in fact do these jobs, especially the young ones who need to pay for school and can’t work a nine-to-five yet. After earning twenty bucks washing my car, my 14-year-old made flyers for his own neighborhood car wash company: $25 a car, $40 for two, no interiors yet, at least until he earns enough to buy a car vacuum. Unfortunately, before he could get started he broke his arm when he flew off his bike. Unlike the illegals who can apply for worker’s compensation and disability, my son will have to wait until he heals to start his side hustle.

And maybe by then, ICE deportations will have shut down the mediocre local car washes that make you wash and vacuum your own car, and he’ll be the only game in town. 

America after illegal immigration will not be perfect, but it will be a much better place to live for the people who legally reside here.

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