The Economics of Illegal Immigration

Since Trump first promised to build a wall, immigration into the US via our southern border has become a costly and amazingly stupid political slugfest.

First, there were Trump’s “kids in cages.”

After Biden took over, it was “even more kids in cages.”

Then it was Biden’s overnight deliveries of hundreds of thousands of undocumented aliens to towns and cities (especially Republican-run cities) all over the country.

Then it was border-state governors shipping tens of thousands of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard and other “sanctuary” cities.

Then it was the good people of the Vineyard quickly rounding up and incarcerating the immigrants.

Then it was the mayors of “sanctuary” cities publicly complaining about the cost of taking care of the sanctuary seekers flooding into their jurisdictions.

And now we have the Biden administration, apparently in response to complaints from

Democrat mayors, claiming to have drastically slowed the inflow by reinstating some of the programs initiated under Trump.

If this has worked – if there has been a significant drop in the number of illegal immigrants coming into the US – it hasn’t yet shown up in the published data.

According to figures compiled at Syracuse University, about 670,000 immigrants were let into the US in the first six months of this year. If the Biden administration has indeed slowed the inflow, we will be able to measure that by looking at year-end numbers. (How much less than 1.3 million undocumented aliens had been let in.)

NYC’s Mayor Adams isn’t happy. About 67,000 (10%) of the 670,000 undocumented aliens that came into the country in the first six months of 2023 ended up in his city. Its population, at 8.2 million, is only about 2.5% of America’s total population. And Adams doesn’t think it’s fair for them to have to take 10% of the burden.

About 90,000 migrants have settled in NYC since 2022, according to the Mayor’s Office, with 57,200 of them living in about 200 shelters. So, Adams is asking for help. Specifically, he’s asked for $300 million from FEMA to help cover the full cost of the crisis, which is projected to be $4.2 billion.

$4.2 billion? That sounds like a lot. But is it really? For a city with 8.2 million inhabitants, half of whom are taxpayers?

Let’s see: $4.2 billion divided by about 60,000 is about $70,000 per immigrant. And $4.2 billion divided by 4.1 million is about $1,100 per taxpayer. Did I do that right? Only $1,100 per taxpayer? What is Adams complaining about?

In any case, the whole mess is a good thing from Mexico’s perspective. Dollars sent to Mexican citizens from Mexicans living in the US have been an important part of Mexico’s GDP for a long time. And thanks to the two years of easy entry on the border, revenues from Mexicans in the US to friends and family members in Mexico increased from $33.5 billion in 2018 to $60 billion in 2023. Anyone want to call immigration a new industry? Click here.