Record-breaking U.S-Mexico immigration surge has dangerous implications for the United States
By: Andreu Beltran
This past December, the number of immigrants along the U.S-Mexico border reached a record high: 225,000. While allowing immigration into the United States saves lives, multiple states are becoming increasingly weary of reaching their limit on how many new immigrants they can hold. Ultimately, the United States is in an inescapable situation when it comes to the border crisis because none of the solutions it has tried — temporary or permanent — are effective in the long term.
The United States cannot support all of its new immigrants, as evidenced by prior solutions to the border crisis that lack long-term effectiveness. Texas’s solution to immigration is a key example of this: Texas is busing immigrants to New York and Washington, which has cost them over $12 million thus far. Not only is this approach costly to the state of Texas, but it also will not work because New York and Washington cannot financially support unlimited immigrants either. To put it into perspective, the immigration surge in New York City will cost the city approximately $121 million over the span of three years. This could result in budget cuts on “school programs, the police department, trash pickup and resources for senior citizens,” according to Mayor Eric Adams. Therefore, New York City residents’ taxes are not necessarily going towards anything positive: the city is sacrificing infrastructure for immigrant reform that will not stay effective as more immigrants arrive. Cutting budgets is just a small band-aid on a larger wound that will continue to grow. The federal answer to the border crisis is only a temporary fix as well. According to a White House spokesperson, the proposed solution is “more law enforcement, more grant funding for jurisdictions hosting immigrants, and funding to accelerate the processing of work permits for eligible noncitizens.” The cost of these solutions will only grow exponentially as the number of immigrants grows, because more employees will be required to process their work permits and protect the border. With this in mind, to fix the border crisis, are long-term solutions more effective at managing immigration into the United States?
Sadly, the answer is no. Title 42, which was lifted in May of 2023, is a prime example of that. Created in response to COVID-19, Title 42 allowed authorities to send immigrants back to Mexico or even their country of origin. Not only did Title 42 make immigrants angry at the federal government for its cruelty, but it also did not prevent them from illegally crossing the border: immigrants sent back to their countries of origin often returned to the border to try to cross again. In fact, since Title 42 was lifted, the amount of border migrant encounters actually decreased by one-half, meaning that sending immigrants back to their home country was not effective in reducing attempted immigration. Additionally, illegitimate travel agencies helping immigrants cross make the border crisis even more difficult to solve. According to CNN, these groups connect immigrants to smugglers who can each help between 500 and 1,000 immigrants cross into the U.S. The only measure the United States government has taken to stop these travel agencies is to restrict railroad and bus passage where these travel agencies typically operate. Both the travel agencies and the response to Title 42 are proof that creating laws to restrict immigration into the United States does not actually decrease immigration. Ultimately, the United States will reach its limit on immigrants soon, as it will not be able to afford to maintain all of its failed past solutions to the border crisis. To effectively combat the border crisis, the United States will need to thread the needle and devise a solution that both improves immigrants’ quality of life and reduces the amount of funding spent on immigration control. While this is a tricky question that does not have one definitive answer, an appropriate place to start would be focusing resources on providing immigrants with education, making them more viable job candidates in the future. Since 3 in 4 employers are unable to find suitable candidates for their jobs, this idea will both provide immigrants with reasonable social mobility and allow the job market to prosper.
