Florida’s #1 For Legal & Illegal Migration - Top 3 Takeaways – January 30th, 2024
- What happens at the southern border doesn’t stay at the southern border. This is something that even casual observers of news know as throngs of illegal immigrants, ahem, “undocumented migrants seeking asylum”, have made their way clear across the country often creating crises in sanctuary cities. According to the Center for Immigration Studies there are currently eleven sanctuary states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington and there are dozens of sanctuary cities within these sanctuary states along with the occasional rogue city in a non-sanctuary state. Florida is most certainly not a sanctuary state, and we don’t have any sanctuary cities. In fact, we have a law against sanctuary status at any level of government. But what we do have...more Biden border crossers seeking asylum than any other state. Which is another way of saying Florida currently has a backlog of more future illegal aliens due to Biden’s border crisis than any other state. That probably comes as a surprise given that a) we’re not a sanctuary state and b) the most obvious examples of the illegal immigration crisis are taking place in the largest sanctuary cities, a la New York City. But the most recent update to Syracuse University’s immigration tracker, showing the court backlog of asylum seekers had Florida at the top of the list. Entering 2024 Syracuse University recorded a record setting 3.287 million asylum seekers awaiting a court date to have their asylum case heard. How does that compare to saner times? A decade ago, there were only 344,000 total backlogged cases. Effectively illegal immigration via the asylum-seeking process is running at a rate that is ten times higher than before – and rapidly growing. Another way of looking at the Biden border crisis...there are now four states with longer asylum case backlogs than the entire country had a decade ago and as mentioned nowhere has more of them than Florida. Florida currently has 481,376 asylum seekers in the pipeline, or...
- Close to 15% of the entire country’s total. For comparison’s sake, Florida’s population is under 7% of the national population. In other words, we’re attracting illegal immigrants at a rate that’s 220% faster than the national average. And the reason isn’t Florida’s fault. It’s entirely a process of the scam, I mean immigration operation, setup by the Biden Administration. The scam where someone who isn’t a legitimate asylum seeker says they’re seeking asylum and is relocated by the Biden Administration at our expense, to their destination of choice. I’m not surprised that Florida’s more than twice as desirable to illegal immigrants as other states, but I do find what’s happening to be outrageous. For all who’ve suggested Governor DeSantis’ foray into border politics, often sending Florida’s National Guard to the southern border in assistance of Texas has been an overreach. The reality on the ground is that Florida, as a state currently, has more at stake than any other state including Texas. Not only should Florida be engaged with what’s happening at the southern border there’s an obvious case to be made that Florida should be actively engaged every bit as much as Texas is. What’s happening at the southern border not only isn’t staying at the southern border, but it’s also most commonly making its way here. Conversely...
- Legal migration into Florida is slowing...but it’s still significant. The Florida Chamber Foundation is out with its annual outlook for our state and it says... Florida will once again outpace the country in population growth but that it will slow to about 250,000 new people this year, or about 685 new residents per day, down from over a thousand per day at the peak of the post-pandemic rush to relocate. And aside from potentially leading the country in legal and evidently illegal migration into our state once again, our economy is expected to grow at the fastest pace in the nation once again as well. After growing at a stunning 9.3% rate in 2023 – the fastest in the country and nearly 4-times the national average rate (a stunning number for any state but especially one that’s already as big as Florida’s economy is as the 14th largest economy in the world) – Florida's economy is expected to grow at 7% this year – in a year in which little economic growth is expected nationally. And the result of remarkable and sustained economic growth is of course more jobs and the Florida Chamber Foundation expects Florida will create about 125,000 more of them this year. And when put together it means there will be a lot more money coming into and being created in Florida this year. According to the Foundation’s estimates Florida will easily continue to lead the country in net wealth migration as well. It’s something I’ve said before but with all of this new information in hand it’s worth saying again. Florida’s story is a great story that keeps getting better. In fact, if anything it might be argued that it's too good of a story as we’re the leading destination for everyone around the world, those coming legally and illegally alike.