It’s hard to pay any attention to the news and not find some sort of mention of illegal immigration and deportation these days. Politicians and enforcement officials frame it as a law-and-order issue, getting criminals off the streets. And who doesn’t want better safety?

Harvard economist Roland Fryer argues that the economics of mass deportations don’t necessarily support those efforts. It’s a matter of incentives. Sure, crime exists in immigrant populations, even undocumented ones, just like it does in all populations. But if the legal consequence is the same, regardless of whether it’s stepping over a line on a map or violent gang activity, morality aside, why wouldn’t people choose the more serious crime to commit? What’s the incentive not to?

Fryer maintains that immigration doesn’t need to be a binary topic. Real border security can exist with proportionate enforcement; law and order can be enforced alongside empathetic integration of immigrant populations. And the economics backs that up.