In Congress, an inverse relationship exists between the number of cross-border workers and a discussion of how millions of new migrants will be taken care of. The higher the numbers, the less there is talk of open borders and the resulting long-term negative consequences for the population.
A report from the border says immigration officials arrested around 7,100 migrants from around the world every day for a recent week. Department of Homeland Security officials predict that total migrations for fiscal year 2022 will surpass 2 million from last year, plus about 1,000 “getaways” per day. Once Title 42 is eliminated, the wave of illegal aliens will escalate as officers will not be allowed to return migrants to Mexico based on COVID-19.
President Biden and those advising him have privately agreed — they wouldn’t dare make a public announcement — that open borders are fine with them. In this era of oil and affordable housing shortages and supply chain disruptions causing product shortages everywhere, what will happen next to migrants and the American environment after they settle? Limits to population growth exist, but are taboo in Congress. Also remember that immigrants have multiplier factors like chain migration and increase in family size or creation of new family units that may need to be provided.
Consider the most basic natural resource requirement that everyone needs: water, and its severe shortage nationwide. The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture, created the US Drought Monitor which maps drought conditions in the national scale and maintains historical records of drought. Ranked by drought severity, the top seven states include four that are top migrant destinations: Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas, the arrival point for thousands of migrants.
In March, 90% of Texas experiences drought conditions, with residents of the High Plains suffering extreme drought. Forecasters are warning that drought conditions could worsen, and some are predicting the possibility of unprecedented 10-year mega-droughts that will bring hotter, drier and more extreme weather than normally seen. The University of Texas and its Institute of the Environment have analyzed the state’s water crisis and the likelihood of its expansion. Population growth has been identified as one of the major contributors to water scarcity. Texas’ population is expected to grow from the current 29.5 million to 51 million by 2070, with the majority residing in urban areas. Undoubtedly, the more people are added to the population of Texas, the more difficult it becomes to overcome the problems of water shortage.
Texas’ projected population increase of 21 million in less than 50 years is part of the total US population growth of 70 million, to 404 million, over the same half-decade. All of them will be daily consumers of water in many ways.
Those who call for increased immigration forget that growth is over. Sir David Attenborough, the filmmaker and natural history biologist who advocated halving immigration to the UK to preserve as much of the landscape as possible, once said: ‘I’ve never seen a problem that didn’t would not be easier to solve with fewer people, or more difficult, and ultimately impossible, with more. Attenborough might have mentioned that the water supply is an unsolvable problem for any region when there is no there are no limits to population growth.
PFIR analyst Joe Guzzardi writes about the issues and impacts of immigration. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.