By Nicholas Riccardi
Associated Press
Just 10 miles from the Rio Grande, farmer Mike Helle has had to replace more than 450 acres of vegetables with other crops that can be harvested with machinery, without labor, because so few migrants have come to work this year.
Al Flores said he had to raise the price of the barbecued brisket dish at his restaurant because the cost of meat doubled as there aren't enough migrants working in the packing plants.
And near Dallas, Texas, Joshua Correa raised the price of the houses his company builds by $150,000 to compensate for rising commodity prices and labor shortages.
Joshua Correa holds up scaffolding for Samuel as they work on a house in Plano, Texas, on May 3, 2022.LM Otero/AP
[Border Patrol Eliminates Units Accused of Abuses]
Migration to the United States decreased during the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021) and was almost completely paralyzed for another 18 months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, the country faces a shortage of workers, in part because of that slowdown.
There are an estimated two million fewer immigrants in the United States than there would be if the rate of arrival had remained the same as in previous years.
Thus, fewer employees are available to process meat or build housing, which in turn exacerbates supply shortages and drives up prices.
Immigrants are relieved by the extension of their work permits.
These will be the beneficiaries
May 3, 202201:44
Labor issues are one of several factors contributing to the highest rate of inflation in the last 40 years, including the disruption in supply chains caused by the pandemic and the increase in gasoline and raw materials due to the Russian invasion. from Ukraine.
Steve Camarota, an expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that advocates reducing immigration, said that a new wave of undocumented immigrants under the current Joe Biden administration will make up for any deficit there may be.
"I don't think raising wages is bad for the poor, and I think mathematically it's not possible to reduce inflation by limiting the wages of those who earn less," Camarota said.
[The creation of 428,000 new jobs contributed to keeping unemployment at 3.6% in April]
Experts indicate that immigration is rapidly returning to its pre-pandemic levels.
However, the United States would need many more migrants to make up the current shortfall.
As there have been fewer births in the United States in the past two decades, some economists forecast that the available labor force will shrink even more by 2025.
The shortage of foreign workers takes place while the Democrats try unsuccessfully to promote immigration reform due to the lack of internal agreement in their party and of Republican support.
A recent Gallup poll indicates that
concern about illegal immigration among the population is at its highest level in two decades
.
Facing a difficult midterm election in November (to be decided by the House of Representatives and likely by a majority in the Senate), Democrats are increasingly divided on the Administration's attempt to end asylum restrictions over the so-called Title 42.
The majority of the country is against eliminating Title 42 and how the Government treats migrants
May 5, 202200:32
"Either we change our immigration policy or we choose to be fewer and older," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and former official in the administration of President George W. Bush.
The also president of the center-right American Action Forum acknowledged that a shift in immigration policy is unlikely: "The bases of both parties are very closed to change."
Republican-dominated Texas is home to the longest and busiest stretch of the southern border.
The state Congress in 2017 forced cities to comply with federal immigration agents looking for people who are in the country illegally.
And Governor Greg Abbott sent the National Guard to patrol the border last year and recently created traffic jams by ordering more inspections at border ports.
The anti-immigration measures are distressing some business owners in Texas.
"It's very important for our workforce," says Correa, "it's something we just need."
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The proportion of the US population born in another country (13.5% at the last census) is the highest since the 19th century.
But even before Trump won the 2016 presidential election and promised to cut immigration, immigration was already slowing.
The Great Recession of 2008 wiped out many jobs that attracted workers, legally or illegally.
Rising living standards in Latin America have also prompted more people to stay where they are, or to return from the US to their countries.
Another migrant dies in a section of the border wall that Trump built.
This is why it is so dangerous
May 6, 202201:50
Flores, who runs a chain of Mexican food restaurants in addition to his barbecue joint, said that although the pandemic was a great blow to his industry, the slowdown in immigration has been hard, and not only for the packing houses that supply him with food. meat: "There are many positions that remain unfilled".
He has steadily pushed wages up, to the current $15 an hour: "This is the culmination of years and years," says Flores, who chairs the Houston Restaurant Association.
Helle, who grows onions, cabbages, melons and cabbage outside the border city of McAllen, Texas, also pays her workers, who are almost exclusively immigrants, more.
People born in the United States, she says, would not work in the fields, regardless of what the salary was.
Before, I could find workers by searching only in the region.
Now he had to resort to a federal program to bring in labor from across the border.
It's more expensive for him, but he said it's the only way to keep his crops from going bad.
Helle, 60, has farmed the area for decades.
“I live 10 miles from the Rio Grande and never in my life did I think we would be in this situation,” she concludes.