by Sharyl Attkisson
The flow of illegal migration along the southern, U.S.-Mexico border is roughly 95% less than it was during the Biden administration.
President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has been hugely successful at dialing back on illegal border crossings. But for some of America’s border communities whose economies relied on illegal immigrants and Border Patrol operations, there’s a big adjustment underway.
Grocery store owner Felix Chavez has spent the better part of five decades building this business in the small border town of Donna, Texas. He’s expanded to eight grocery stores and one convenience store.
Each year, he says, sales have climbed. That is, until now.
“The last year has really impacted our sales. We have seen drops anywhere between 10 to 12%,” Chavez says. "Also, the labor force, where we used to employ around 550 employees, right now we have dropped down to about 450.”
The economic ripples extend far into border communities. Richard Cortez is an elected official in Hidalgo County, Texas.
“It's estimated that in my county we have at least, about, I'm gonna say 10, 15, maybe as high as 20% of our people here that are not legal citizens. So I knew it would have a huge impact,” Chavez says.
“Many of our construction workers are here as noncitizens that are working. And today, you know, we're starting to see a big impact of that. Our economy here was largely agricultural based, agri-based. So you have to harvest your products. Many of the farmers just didn't wanna put any crops in the ground because they were concerned about harvesting those crops.”
A massive tent center in nearby Donna, Texas, was constructed during the Biden years and peak illegal immigration. The center covered 185,000 square feet on 40 acres of city-owned property.
In its heyday, nearly 700 Border Patrol agents worked there. They processed about 611,000 illegal immigrants from 90 countries. The lease and utilities alone provided the city of Donna with more than a million dollars a year: around 8% of its entire budget.
Today, the lot is empty.
Jared Ashby is the top Border Patrol official in charge of the Rio Grande Valley sector in South Texas.
“At one time, the US government, and specifically the U.S. Border Patrol, contracted out numerous facilities across the country to help detain and then process illegal aliens," Ashby said. "Now that the flow has [been] reduced by 95%. ... We would hold thousands or up to 10,000 plus in different holdings across the US. Now we're at hundreds.
"So [with] a 95% reduction, there is no longer a need for those detention facilities or those temporary facilities like the Donna facility. So without the need for those facilities, some of those facilities were in the tens of millions of dollars per month for the taxpayers, and that is at a savings for U.S. taxpayers now.”
That’s an important point. Overall, analysts say the tightened southern border has delivered a huge windfall for American taxpayers.
Some estimates put the total number of forced and self-deportations under the current Trump administration at more than three million. Nobody can say for sure, but savings are estimated at about $30 billion a year – counting the costs of prison, education, health care, enforcement, and more.
For more on this story, watch "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” Sunday. Attkisson's most recent bestseller is "Follow the $cience: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails."
Sharyl Attkisson
Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/economy/trump-immigration-lockdown-saves-taxpayers-about-30b-year-border-towns-go-boom-bust
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