by Jack Clancy
Immigration is behind the biggest annual population increase in the history of the United States, according to an independent research firm.
“US population grew +3.8M in 2023 – the largest one-year increase in US history,” tweeted Eric Finnigan of John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC) earlier this month.
“The surge is likely short-lived as its [sic] almost all from immigration, which is conditional on policy, legislation, regulations, etc,” he qualified.
In December, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the nation’s population had grown by over 1.6 million during 2023. This is despite a long-term trend of falling birth rates in the United States.
In a subtle acknowledgment of the unchecked illegal immigration that has taken place under the Biden administration, Finnigan noted that this number might be underestimated.
US population grew +3.8M in 2023 – the largest one-year increase in US history.
(We think a recent Census estimate of +1.6M growth underestimated immigration flows.)
The surge is likely short-lived as its almost all from immigration, which is conditional on policy,… pic.twitter.com/ChUPA2Enpp
— Eric Finnigan (@EricFinnigan) February 15, 2024
He warned that even though the population surge will eventually slow, the high number of immigrants coming to the U.S. last year “will have important ripple effects for year[s] through housing, the economy, and the rest of society.”
In other words, by supporting the influx of low-wage workers, the Biden administration and the cultural elite get cheap labor. And Americans lose jobs and housing.
The JBREC finding came just days before the release of a Fox News story ominously titled, “7.2M illegals entered the US under Biden admin, an amount greater than population of 36 states.” According to the article:
The total number of southwest land border encounters since Biden assumed office in 2021 is 7,298,486, CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] data shows.
That is larger than the population of 36 U.S. states, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The article continues:
Were the number of illegal immigrants who entered the United States under President Biden gathered together to found a city, it would be the second-largest city in America after New York. And the total does not include an estimated additional 1.8 million known “gotaways” who evaded law enforcement, which would make it bigger than New York.
Taken together, nearly 10 million migrants have crossed into the U.S. illegally during the Biden administration, a record Biden’s critics assert could only be achieved by intentionally refusing to enforce the law.
And this influx of immigrants is not without its problems. I recently wrote about the human cost of all this illegal immigration: the sheer number of people who are trafficked across the U.S. southern border.
Of course, none of this is to mention the murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers who get a free pass into American communities.
While President Biden has deflected responsibility for the border crisis, he infamously used his first day in office to sign a raft of proclamations and executive orders that incentivized illegal immigration—including edicts to pause deportation and halt border wall construction in southern states.
The Biden administration may continue to ignore the extent of the problem, but the American public appears to be wising up to the issues caused by the crisis. In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, 80 percent of American adults expressed negative views about the U.S. government’s handling of illegal immigration.
“Nearly all Americans say the large number of migrants seeking to enter the United States at the Mexican border is a problem,” Pew reported.
Just 18 percent had a positive view of the government’s handling of the border, and only one percent claimed the Biden administration is doing a “very good” job.
This extreme lack of support should, at the least, give us pause. How can we thoughtfully navigate the issues brought about by immigration? Or—better yet—how can we stop the problem before it starts?
With the 2024 presidential election less than eight months away, the border crisis is emerging as one of the major issues animating voter sentiment. And the question remains: When illegal immigration only harms all the innocents involved, why is the Biden administration so eager to promote it?
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Jack Clancy is a contributor to Intellectual Takeout.
Photo “Citizenship Paperwork” by Grand Canyon National Park. CC BY 2.0.
