Many may not realize it but more illegal immigrants have been deported during President Obama’s presidency than ever before. An estimated 2.5 million people have been removed from America since he took office. Some have even referred to him as the “deporter-in-chief.”

The two leading Republican presidential candidates want to continue and even expand what is currently happening. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz want to deport millions more, even though many polls show that Americans oppose mass deportations of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

If these two candidates are serious about mass deportation, then we should count the cost. Doug Holtz-Eakin is the former director of the Congressional Budget Office. Last year he calculated that deporting all of these illegal immigrants would take 20 years and cost the federal government at least $400 billion in extra spending.

Jeff Jacoby, in a recent column, quotes a new study that also calculates the cost in terms of government personnel. Evicting immigrants is a four-step process. They must be apprehended, detained, prosecuted, and transported. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would need more than 90,000 enforcement agents.

There’s more. The government would have to build and maintain additional detention facilities and have to triple the number of immigration courts to adjudicate the removal cases. Instead of the current 1,400 chartered flights, we would need 17,000 flights. The current 2,500 bus trips would explode to 30,000.

Finally, we would lose millions currently in our work force that would result in reduced economic output. Is America ready to pay this price for mass deportation? It is question that needs a good answer in this election cycle.