Mayra Flores @MayraFlores_TX is a Republican politician who used to represent a part of Texas in the U.S. Congress. She wants to run for the same position again in 2024. She recently talked to a news website called Townhall about the problems at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Flores said that the border is controlled by criminals from Mexico, who are called the Mexican cartel. She said that they are very dangerous and they make money by smuggling drugs, weapons, and people across the border.
She said that the people who live near the border have to deal with this problem every day. She also said that it is very easy for terrorists to enter the country, because there is not enough security at the border.
She Blames Biden for the Border Crisis
Flores said that the border crisis is caused by President Joe Biden and his administration. She said that they are not following the laws that are supposed to protect the border and stop illegal immigration.
She said that Biden’s administration is responsible for the deaths of many migrants who try to cross the border. She said that many of them die from heat, dehydration, or violence.
She said that the only way to stop the crisis is to start sending people back to their countries and enforcing the law. She said that Biden’s administration is not doing that enough. She said that when people see that they can stay in the U.S., they will keep coming.
How Many People Cross the Border Illegally Each Year?
The number of people who cross the border illegally each year varies depending on different sources and methods of measurement. According to one source, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.7 million illegal crossings over the past year, the most since at least 1960, when the government began keeping records. However, this number does not include the people who crossed the border without being detected or expelled by the authorities. According to another source, there were an estimated 660,000 successful unlawful border entries that did not end in an arrest in fiscal year 2021. Therefore, the total number of illegal border crossings in the past year could be as high as 2.36 million. However, these numbers do not reflect the number of individuals who crossed the border, since some of them may have crossed more than once. In fact, more than a quarter of all migrant encounters at U.S. borders in both fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2020 involved repeat crossers.
How Does Illegal Immigration Affect the U.S. Economy?
Illegal immigration is a complex and controversial issue that affects the U.S. economy in various ways. According to different sources, illegal immigration can have both positive and negative impacts on the U.S. economy, depending on the perspective and the measurement method.
Some of the possible negative impacts of illegal immigration on the U.S. economy are:
- Illegal immigrants depress the wages of low-skilled native workers, who compete with them for jobs in sectors such as agriculture, construction, and hospitality.
- Illegal immigrants increase the fiscal burden on the federal government, which spends more on border security, law enforcement, health care, and education for them than it collects in taxes from them.
- Illegal immigrants create social and political problems, such as crime, violence, discrimination, exploitation, and resentment among some segments of the population.
Some of the possible positive impacts of illegal immigration on the U.S. economy are:
- Illegal immigrants increase the size of the U.S. economy and contribute to economic growth by providing labor, skills, and consumption.
- Illegal immigrants enhance the welfare of natives by complementing their skills, increasing their productivity, and lowering the prices of goods and services.
- Illegal immigrants contribute more in tax revenue than they collect in public benefits, especially at the state and local levels.
- Illegal immigrants reduce American firms’ incentives to offshore jobs and import foreign-produced goods, since they offer a cheaper and more flexible source of labor.
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