For more than a quarter-century, I have assisted young people on their higher education journey. Around 85% have been Hispanic. It quite naturally follows that the subject of immigration is not foreign to me, quite the contrary. At times (many years back), I have written essays on the subject, often underlining the demographic changes which make increased immigration critical to economic growth in the United States.
More recently, I have kept a running compilation of immigration-related facts and thoughts, gleaned primarily from my daily in-print newspaper fix: the “New York Times” and the “Wall Street Journal.”
It was helpful to me to then create a somewhat logical, heavily edited grouping of this type of information. Note that in the material below, it would be stunning if there were not some confusing inputs, even outright contradictions – they go with any discussion of immigration.
Before moving ahead, these are a few baseline background thoughts relevant to immigration.
Did past USA policies in certain countries south of our border screw up governments, distort economies, and cause the death of innocent people? Yes. In recent years, are there similar policies which have produced similar results? None of which I am aware. Are these countries unable to foster stable governance and job-creating economies not saddled with the fear of criminal activity? Good question. Are we to assume that the resident population of these countries is permanently incapable of positive change? If so, no point continuing with this piece of writing. If not, then the assumption is that aiding these countries directly is not a forever proposition, even if it is a multiyear commitment.
In the meantime, as the saying goes, people will beg, borrow, or steal in order to get to the USA and its implicit promise of jobs, relative safety, and the freedom to call the President bad names without fearing reprisal.
Fully realizing that all immigration issues overlap with the approximate structure of spaghetti, nonetheless below I have grouped my immigration notes under these headings:
The Border: General, Asylum
Domestic: Data and Demographics
Politics/Economics: Politics, Economics, Legal
International: Canada, Other Countries
The Border: General
*At least for the moment, the number of border crossers has dropped significantly, reflecting tougher policies instituted by both Mexico (for example, people who are apprehended being transported far from the border) and the USA (five-year ban on repeated illegal crossers) plus improvements to the latter’s appointment scheduling app: CPB One (Customs and Border Protection, which is within Homeland Security; Border Patrol is part of CPB, which was created after 9/11 with an anti-terrorist mission.) Communication by lawyers to clients is said to be chaotic, despite the improvements.
*Near Eagle Pass, the state of Texas is creating a long floating barrier of orange buoys to discourage border crossing swimmers; it is now the subject of a lawsuit. Other Texas measures under Operation Lone Star, including the use of razor wire, have come under substantial attack; use of Texas state troopers and National Guardsmen has fueled irritation, as have reports of undue aggressiveness, including the killing of a tribal member in Arizona. Texas’ response is basically that it is attempting to bring order to a federal issue, international borders and immigration enforcement, when there is no evidence the federal government is committed to doing so. Minorities directly affected by the border situation have themselves supported Texas’ actions; some elsewhere have questioned whether the benefits are worth the cost of approximately $2.5 billion per year.
*Border crossing has become a business, no longer featuring random coyotes; Mexican drug cartels are heavily involved in certain areas. The cost of a coyote exceeds $10,000. A record number are dying at the border, especially in places with treacherous water.
*The Supreme Court has supported the Biden policy of prioritizing deportations: those deemed threats and those who crossed illegally get full attention. Those who have been in the USA for many years and done nothing wrong get a pass. The backlog of all cases is about two million. To address this with clarity and justice requires significant additional staff and money.
*In the year ended September 30, 2022, there were 2.3 million border encounters compared with 405,000 in pandemic 2020. About 70% of border crossers are single males. A reported 75% of unaccompanied minors are from Venezuela, Ecuador, and Haiti. Overall, 250,000 migrant children have come alone to the USA in the past two years, here to work and send money back.
*Entrepreneurs at the border are selling infrared rifle scopes, spyware, materials for fence sensors. Border states and individuals are becoming enforcers of their own interpretation of immigration laws. Non-profit organizations are at the border for more humane purposes. QAnon representatives are functioning at the border as well, purportedly to help kids in need.
*The average wait in an ICE detention center is 37 days. Detention capacity is 20,000. Pending cases are up sevenfold in the past decade (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University). There is a 150-day waiting period before eligibility to work. Both immigrant advocates and prospective employers (at present anyway) would like eligibility to happen quicker, even if it was only for a stipulated period of time, e.g. two years.
*The movie ”Sound of Freedom” has grossed over $150 million at the box office; filmed in 2018, it is based on the true story of an American Homeland Security Agent who investigated pedophiles. Its producer and director are Mexican, as were most of the movie’s investors.
The Border: Asylum
*The CBP One app is designed to facilitate would-be crossers signing up to get themselves in the immigration data system. There are 1,000+ appointments available daily; 40,000 monthly. The person has 23 hours to register and confirmation of the booking is within 23 hours.
*More than 170,000 people received appointments in the first half of 2023, 38,000 in June alone.
*A federal appeals court judge has given the Biden asylum process at least a temporary green light, shortly after a federal judge had nixed it.
*Asylum judges (who are located in the Justice Department) look at the asylum application and read State Department reports on their home country. Fleeing solely for economic reasons does not make a person eligible for asylum. Some 80% of new arrivals have received decisions within a year; only one-third had lawyers. Migrants have a right to a lawyer, but the government is not obligated to pay them. There are 70 immigration courts, with an average of 10 judges each. The average time to close a case has been four years. When families cross illegally – unsure whether this is rendered irrelevant with the newer procedures — the head of household is obliged to wear an ankle monitor; the goal is a 30-day decision on whether they can stay or are to be deported.
*Regional processing centers have been opened in Colombia and Guatemala. Their objective is to do an initial screening of prospective asylum seekers, including referrals to relevant federal programs. The overall goal of recent changes is to cut the asylum process time to six months. Said cases are 40% of the two million immigration case backlog.
*Private citizens can offer logistical and financial responsibility for refugees; a “Welcome Group” must have at least five people and raise at least $2,275 per refugee. Reportedly, more than one million have signed up to be sponsors of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Domestic: Data and Demographics
*In 2022, there were 7.3 million visas issued for all categories of people, meaning the breadth and depth of administrative challenges is quite large.
*Some 900,000 immigrants became citizens in 2022, the third highest ever and the most in 15 years. About 20% of American households communicate in a second language; in order, these are the leading languages: Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic. It is projected that by 2060, there will be 110 million Spanish speakers in the USA, a number twice the entire population of Colombia.
*Around 10% of black individuals in the USA were born elsewhere; including children, they represent 21% of the total black population. On average, they are more educated, with higher incomes and fewer living in poverty. Racial issues are basically the same as those impacting native born blacks.
*One-fifth of immigrants come with less than a high school education. Half of immigrants can speak English. Asians represent 37% of recent immigrants; Hispanics, 28%. In 2001, those numbers were 22% and 53% respectively.
*Contrary to what might be thought, in recent years, the undocumented count in the USA has stayed flat at approximately 10 million, compared with a peak of 12 million in 2008. New Jersey is one of the six states which represent 59% of undocumented individuals; it has an estimated 475,000 undocumented individuals. Two-thirds of undocumented adults have been in the state for more than a decade. They can now obtain professional credentials, e.g. teacher or nurse.
*New York City is home to a half-million undocumented individuals, plus more than 50,000 new migrants (and 50,000 homeless as well). It has about 200 shelters. Immigrants are half the workforce and own half of the businesses in the city. New York has also lost 500,000 legal residents since 2020. Under a consent decree signed by the city, it is obliged to offer housing to all who request it. Reportedly, a NYC resident would have to be making $280,000 pre-tax to afford what a migrant family is receiving.
*During the Biden administration, one million migrants have been admitted, including 300,000 who are wearing tracking devices. Some 1.7 million have been turned away. One-quarter of nonelderly legal immigrants have no health insurance, compared with 8% of all Americans.
*The USA has a shortage of academic talent; it has one high scoring young person compared with two who score low. Germany has equal numbers in the two categories; Scandinavia has three times as many in the high scoring category and Japan, five times as many. About 70% of American college graduates in Electrical Engineering and Computer/Information Services are foreign nationals.
*Without immigration, the working-age population (25-64) will decline in this country.
Politics/Economics: Politics
*In 1986, President Reagan gave amnesty to 2.7 million undocumented individuals. The memory of this action is implanted in the minds of those who believe people crossing the border on betting on some type of amnesty program, whatever the specific terminology.
*President Obama deported 3.0 million people, of whom 1.7 million had no criminal record; Trump’s numbers, counterintuitively, were actually less.
*It’s an old number but interesting; in 2016, about 700,000 foreigners who came to the USA and came by air or sea, i.e. were logged into the system, did not leave when they were supposed to.
*Perhaps surprisingly, 60% of Republicans and 83% of Democrats support increasing skilled immigration.
Since 2007, family based admissions have been about 800,000 per year; employment-based admissions have been around 150,000.
*Work visa renewals now can be done within the USA. ICE has extended work permit expiration dates; there is a backlog here of 1.5 million. It can take a year to get an initial work permit. In 2021, a House bill was passed that would have provided a path to citizenship for one million farmworkers here illegally. The annual 85,000 H-1B visa slots are typically oversubscribed by almost 10:1.
*Biden extended Temporary Protected Status through work-related 18-month visas for immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Nepal. Expiration dates vary; the underlying timelines go back to natural disasters: a 1998 earthquake for the former, a 1998 hurricane for the middle two, and a 2015 earthquake for the latter. The majority of the 400,000 people here under TPS have been in the USA for twenty years.
*Place-based visas are part of the immigration system in Australia and Canada. Maybe the USA should consider them: in the latest census, 80% of its counties (a total of 149 million people) lost residents in the 25-47 age group.
*Innumerable non-profit organizations are providing pro bono legal help and other assistance to migrants who have been transported to cities far away from the border. It is a thankless task driven by humane considerations; there is neither cohesion of service delivery nor any clarity of future planning.
*There are about 700,000 DACA recipients. An estimated 200,000 are teachers and frontliners. The DACA program began in 2012, under an executive order. The Supreme Court decision against DACA was on technical grounds; renewals are happening.
*There has been bipartisan support (and close votes in Congress) for a path to legalization for DACA recipients (example: Under the Dream and Promise Act, dreamers could remain for at least 10 years and become permanent residents if they did two years in college or the military or held a steady job), yet nothing happens as the issue is used as an overall immigration bargaining chip by both sides of the aisle. Note that work authorization for the parents of DACA recipients would be an important plus.
Political/Economic: Economics
*The USA reportedly has 9.6 million job openings, a number far greater than those seeking work; acceleration of temporary work visas would make sense. An estimated 75% of undocumented individuals in the USA are employed, the total number equating to 5% of all those working. (Immigrants represent 25% of the 4.3 million direct care workers in the USA.)
*Florida law SB 1718 invalidates out-of-state driver’s licenses given to illegal immigrants, requires hospitals to quantify uncompensated healthcare, and mandates employers with at least 25 employees to use E-Verify to confirm the legal status of hires. There are an estimated 770,000 undocumented immigrants in his state, many of whom work for entrepreneurial businesses: construction, hospitality, agriculture. Reportedly half of its crop farm workers lack status. The question is whether Florida’s on-going economic growth pattern will be stalled. There is initial evidence that this is the case; when an undocumented individual has the capability to choose where to work or live, Florida loses.
*While H-1B visas for skilled workers and H-2B visas for unskilled workers are capped, there is no cap on H-2A guest workers. The employer must attest he cannot find local workers for the job. In 2022, there were 300,000 H-2A visas issued, quadruple the rate a decade earlier.
*Cross border trade between the USA and Mexico is $1.8 billion per day; 1000 trucks/day cross at Brownsville, Texas; 200,000 cars and trucks daily cross the whole border.
*There is a $1 billion pledge by private companies (Nestle, Target et al) to support communities in Central America by assisting farmers, creating textile jobs, and investing in telecom.
*The EB-5 green card investment requirement for projects in designated job creation areas has been lifted to $900,000 from $500,000. Elsewhere, the requirement is $1.8 million, up from $1 million.
*According to FWD.us, TPS holders contribute $22 billion annually to the US economy.
Political/Economic: Legal
*California is arguing that the hiring of undocumented individuals, while federally prohibited, is not illegal at the state level.
*Noncitizens who entered unlawfully cannot obtain permanent residency even if they have stayed under Temporary Protected Status.
*Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) taps a CLEAR data base from utility companies, compiled by Thomson Reuters and Equifax. This is probably not legal in the view of many immigrant advocates.
*ICE cannot make arrests in schools, hospitals, churches, daycare centers, or foster care facilities.
*A growing number of states have extended driving license privileges to undocumented individuals.
*Foreign students who overstay their visas by more than 180 days are barred from re-entry for three years. If unlawfully present for over a year, they are barred for ten years.
International: Canada
*Canada had been admitting 250,000 immigrants annually on a population base of 32 million, twice the proportion of the USA, Sweden, or Germany. Over half have college degrees. Only 6% of its foreign-born population is undocumented, compared with 30% in USA.
*Now, Canada is stepping up its immigration/permanent resident goals, to 1.45 million over a three-year period. In 2022, it took in 437,000 immigrants. Like the USA, Canada has an aging native born population and a large number of vacant jobs.
*Canada is openly going after American H-1B visa holders as it seeks to take advantage of layoffs in the tech industry.
*Eligibility for immigrants favors higher education and skilled work resumes. Its point system leads to a foreign-born population that is the best educated within the OECD. If accepted to the country, an immigrant is automatically on the path to citizenship.
*Seasonal workers (some with specific employer restrictions) who come for eight-month jobs often do so annually for 10-15 years.
*There are an increased number of border crossers into Canada, especially on the northern border of the USA. Asylum seekers in Canada can apply for work permits.
*Canada is not completely welcoming. It now bars foreigners for two years from buying residential properties in certain cities.
International: Other countries
*Latin America represents 8% of the world’s population and 1/3 of its homicides.
*In Honduras and El Salvador, remittances from those in the USA represent 20% of GDP. In Honduras,
2/3 of its nine million people are considered poor; 25% of families receive remittances. Total remittances from the USA to all countries are $80 billion, one-third of which go to those living in Mexico.
*Venezuela is hemorrhaging people, over seven million in total. Colombia has received 2.5 million and the USA, 95,000 (150,000 have been stopped). Some 400,000 migrants (compared with an average of 10,000 per year in 2010-2020) have traversed the 70-mile Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama, 2,800 miles from the USA. Indigenous populations in that area now experience contaminated water, garbage everywhere, and not infrequently, dead bodies.
*Special programs (up to 30,000 people per month) for Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua allow an immigrant to come to the USA on a two-year work permit if they have a private sponsor. The program has reduced illegal crossings from the latter two, but has had little impact on the former. About one-third of households in Venezuela relay on remittances to survive.
*Developed countries are bidding for foreign workers; the world would be richer if poor people migrated to the former locations. At the same time, different developed nations are implementing tough anti-migrant measures. Political pressure is on mainstream parties from the growing influence of those to their right. Part of the political perception is a widespread fear that the type of immigrant coming to, e.g., a country in Europe, is not the skilled, at least semi-educated profile that is desired. Businesses may like lower wage entrants but the populace in general does not, and neither regards current policies as being structural resolutions.
*Germany is shortening the time needed for immigrants to get credentials as its 84 million population base is aging and not growing.
*In 2022, five million more people moved from less affluent to more affluent countries than vice-versa. This is 80% more than the pre-pandemic level. The United Kingdom’s net gain was 600,000, a record.
*The European Union has sent considerable funds to Tunisia, the purpose being to assist that country in handling immigrants from and passing through Tunisia.
Closing Comment
The USA is the only country in the world destined to be comprised of multiple minorities. Kudos!
At the same time, net immigration is providing all the population growth in the USA. Thus, agreement on immigrant policies is mandatory to (a) avoid a continuation of the current chaos at the border and in the system overall and to (b) establish something resembling stability in the specific approaches being implemented by the multiple government agencies involved with immigration.
Bringing DACA recipients into the fold would be a good step one. Providing temporary work visas for as many entrants as feasible would be a helpful step two. Adding resources to the asylum judge system is a necessary step three.
Politically, there must be a two-party explicit recognition that a defensible border Is a necessary component of any immigration policy package. Both must sign off as well on a legitimate border being meaningless without other measures to make the immigrant a welcome addition to this country.