Bush Institute Monthly Immigration Update

Hello, Friends.

 

Texans have an unique relationship with immigration. Around 17% of our population is foreign born, but immigrants are a full 20% of our labor force. We have the longest portion of the border with Mexico, and our border communities experience the real costs and benefits of policies made thousands of miles away in Washington. For decades, organizations in these communities have provided comfort to and welcomed recently arrived migrants seeking opportunity or fleeing persecution.

While never perfect, this relationship often focused on the practical. We’ve had in-state tuition for undocumented students since 2001. In 2006, the state Comptroller published a study showing the impressive economic impact of undocumented workers in Texas – $17.7 billion in gross state product. An update to this study conducted by the Baker Institute found this number has grown: In 2018, the impact to gross state product was between $84.5 billion and $171.9 billion.

It's clear that Texas benefits from immigration, which makes it more difficult to see how the state government is behaving during the recent migration increase at the border. A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande this weekend, and Texas officials and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are pointing fingers at each other. As this tragedy makes clear, the biggest failure here is the petty power struggle between the two governments.

Texas has a choice: Will we continue to model immigration success, or will we be better known for our inhumanity to score political points?

 

Kind Regards,

Laura

Figure of the Month

520,000

Data Dive

 

• 3,000 refugees have arrived in the U.S. through the Biden Administration's Safe Mobility Offices which were set up in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador to help streamline the immigration process for qualified refugees and to provide an alternative to paying smugglers.

• With a large youth population and lax visa restrictions in parts of Latin America, more Africans are trying to reach the U.S. via the southern border than in years past. Historically, migration from the continent of Africa has been low, but that changed dramatically in 2023. The number of migrants from Africa identified at the southern border jumped to 58,462 in fiscal year 2023 from 13,406 in 2022, a 336% increase.

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 142,000 immigrants in fiscal year 2023, more than double the year before.

• Across the world, fertility rates are declining. But in eight Latin American and Caribbean countries, fertility rates are dropping at unprecedented rates: between 10% and 34% over the past decade in the most populous countries. In Argentina, for example, the country’s fertility has declined more in the previous six years than in the previous six decades. This trend will have substantial ramifications for local economic development and eventually may reduce pressure to migrate to the United States.

• As the Senate continues to negotiate a border package, a recent op-ed in the New York Times provides a helpful analysis of migration numbers. Of an estimated 3.1 million attempted crossings at the U.S. southern border, just 2,700 were granted formal relief in the form of asylum and other paths toward permanent residency.

• A wide network of migrant advocates and nonprofits attempted to establish a more organized process for busing migrants to northern cities but have found their efforts thwarted. State and local enforcement is important to functional immigration policy, but it will only be successful with adequate coordination between relevant authorities.

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently set up a pre-registration program that will more quickly process work permits for migrants who use the CBP One app appointment system, which could be an incentive to enter the U.S. at legal ports of entry.

• The U.S. Department of Justice sued Texas over a new state law that would allow Texas police to arrest migrants who are suspected of crossing the border illegally. This is the second lawsuit filed against the Texas bill, with the ACLU and Texas Civil Rights Project filing suit in December. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that local police do not have the authority to arrest people solely based on their immigration status.

• In the spirit of election season, I found this gem from then-Texas Governor George W. Bush’s campaign for president in 2000: “[W]e will enforce the borders as long as I’m governor and if I’m the president, but in a humane way.”

• Creating avenues for legal migration through self-petitioning

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