Why does the United States have so many illegal immigrants?

And What is Title 42?

The story of immigration, particularly illegal immigration / undocumented immigrants is the epitome of Geography and Economics effect on the real world (FYI - I will use the term illegal immigrants for the rest of the story despite its loaded definition). Also note: in the interest of background and possible bias, I grew up in Los Angeles where quite a few illegal immigrants mixed with other workers and friends. I suffered no economic tragedy and suffered no harm from this upbringing.

The issue starts with Geography. The physical border between Mexico and the United States is 1,954 miles (per Wikipedia) and was the longest between a “rich” country with a “poorer” country. This has led to a lot of pressure for Mexican workers to head north. And at various times, including World War II, the United States has had a very accommodating to legal immigration and turned a blind eye to illegal immigration. In times of slow growth, the United States has cut back or curtailed immigration.

Economic opportunity drives much illegal immigration. In California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, illegal immigrants make up a massive part of the work force. In many Midwest states, agricultural and slaughtering jobs are dominated by illegal immigration, taking jobs Americans will not. These jobs and opportunities provide the pull for legal and illegal immigrants into the United States. And it is completely understandable for illegal immigrants to try to work in the United States when they are providing for their families.

Title 42

In 2020 immigration was all but halted, including legal asylum seekers, with the introduction and implementation of Title 42. Passed during the Covid year and in place until “now” (it is due to go out of effect on Dec 21st, 2022 - but judicial reviews may change that.) Title 42 allowed the United Sates to suspend entries from designated places to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. During Covid years, “designated places” were defined as everywhere. Because of the decline in transmission and seriousness of Covid, the current administration decided to scrap the rule. This has led to an explosion of pent up asylum seekers and migrants that haven’t been able to cross the border, or were sent back with no review.

Border states like Texas and Arizona, who do get the brunt of immigrant crossings, are fearful that new migrants, both legal and illegal, will swamp the border, the legal systems, and any processing systems in place. This is not a new problem, but an exacerbation of the current situation.

Due to the internal politics in the United States, we have focuses on preventing crossings on the physical border. We do this because corporate lobbyists fight against any other solutions, uniting corporate interests with liberal priorities. Many people, both right and left on the political spectrum, do not want to focus on those migrants that are here, but rather on keeping future immigrants from crossing the southern border. But closing the southern border is a losing proposition. There is a nearly 2,000 mile border through very hostile terrain with some very motivated people on the other side.

There seem to be 2 solutions, with only one attempted so far.

Possible Solution 1

The North American Free Trade Association tried to build up the economy of Mexico, with fairly good results. In recent years, both the percentage of Mexicans as part of illegal immigrants and in absolute terms have decreased, as the Mexican economy and wages have improved. NAFTA and the newer USMCA opened new jobs, new technology and raised wages in Mexico. All of these impacts have decrease Mexican immigration into the United States. But other nationals from poorer nations continue to use the Mexican border to illegally cross into the United States.

Possible Solution 2

The second, and I think more serious solution, would be to punish employers of illegal immigrants. This is rarely tried. When it does happen, it almost always includes raids to small employers. The largest companies and biggest employers of illegal immigrants - like Tyson Foods or construction companies - are not fined or punished in anyway, despite laws on the books that allow this. It is much easier politically to vilify the economic migrants - who are normally brown people ,than it is to prosecute large employers and owners - who are usually white men.

Even immigrant “round ups” made for TV do not publicize or often even announce the company that illegally employs them. We do have the infrastructure to do this easily, but we do not use it.

And so our government tries to stem people from entering the United States, but we do not punish the American companies that drive and profit from illegal immigration. If you invite people to work, but not allow legal immigration you have the problem we face, which is illegal immigration so that you get workers who cannot complain. Again, it is much easier to vilify “illegal aliens” or “Mexicans” than it is to vilify companies that make cheap foods and goods using that labor. And all Americans profit in the form of lower costs for foods and construction.

A newer problem is the legal asylum seekers primarily from Venezuela and Cuba. These immigrants are legally asking for asylum, and we are legally required to hear and rule on their requests. But the United States does not employ nearly enough judges to do this. The country’s backlog of asylum cases is crazy. The backlog of assigned cases is ~550,000 if they actually have a trail date. For old asylum cases the average time to get a trial is 3 – 4 years. The backlog of people that are not even scheduled was ~110,000 in 2021. It has only gotten worse. And for those asylum seekers who are not yet scheduled the next hearings is about 7 YEARS away. This is no reason why the lifting of Title 42 is freaking people out. It will lead to thousands of new claimants of asylum almost immediately.

We can slow illegal immigrants by both prosecuting employers and vastly increasing our immigration judges. But slowing migration will effect companies with a large lobbying capability, so it hard to get anything through Congress. And it costs money to add judges and defense lawyers. Money Americans don’t want to spend. Instead we waste that money on visible walls, that really do very little.

Can we address the problems? Our nation has done so before. And we have done so in a bi-partisan manner. It was done during the Reagan Administration. But it is almost impossible now with our current political landscape. Demonization is easier that providing solutions.