Steven Camarota - Director of Research, Center For Immigration Studies Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, about two point two million people went home five
fifty three now Here in Houston's Morning News, Stephen Camarada,
director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, joins
us that two point two million dollar figure. How do
we know that figure, Stephen? Where do we get that
figure from?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
It comes from the same data that we use to
collect for the employment rate in the United States, like
unemployment things like that. Now, it's a different data source
than the one that does job growth that was so
controversial recently when it was revised down. This is a
different data source that we've been collecting well gosh for decades. Okay,

(00:37):
it's done every month, all right, up.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
The two point two billion have gone home. Can we
ascertain how many of them were here legally versus illegally?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yes, the estimate is that there were one point six
million of the two point two The decline is among
the illegal immigrant population, so very substantial. Based on my research,
it's about ten percent of about one out of ten
about the illegal imigrants have left.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Basically, Okay, and these are people who all left voluntarily
or does this include ice figures?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh no, it would include people who got deported, but
we didn't deport that we don't support that many people.
At most something like two hundred and fifty thousand people
might have been removed over this time period, so most
of it would be people headed home. Now. Remember there's
always a background rate of people returning, both legal and
illegal immigrants. Most research suggests that somewhere around a million

(01:32):
people who are foreign born overall head home each year.
In about three hundred thousand illegal immigrants head home each year.
That's because you know, they've they've been here long enough,
they want to retire in their home country, they want
to go back and see mom, they're sick of life here.
Whatever it is. There's a lot of churn in the
foreign born population, including illegal immigrants, But what seems to
be happening is a fundamental shift that significantly more people

(01:55):
are now head at home than are coming, something we've
really not had before.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
We know, while we have fewer people coming, we have
secured the borders, so we don't have that problem anymore.
That got cured almost overnight. As far as more people
going home, I would assume, and please correct me if
I'm wrong, but I would assume that has everything to
do with the ice enforcement that's going on right now.
Thanks to President Trump and just the general knowledge of

(02:19):
knowing that this president means what he says about going
after people who are here illegally, right.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
I mean, it seems certain we have a ton of
anecdotal evidence of that that people are going home because
they don't want to get caught up in enforcement. And
so look, I mean, we all know that if you
pull one person over for speeding on a highway, everybody
slows down. It changes behavior once the prospect of actual

(02:47):
enforcement becomes a reality, and that seems to be what's
happening here as best we can tell.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, Stephen, thank you appreciate it. Steven Camarado, Director of
Research Center for Immigration Studies. It's five fifty six.