Ep 7: Immigration Crisis: How We Got Here - Part 1

Immigration has become a flash point in American society.But how did we get here? In this, the first episode, of a four part series I examine how the immigration debate became a weapon of mass distraction and what the real numbers reveal about the crisis behind the crisis.

Transcript

Raheel Khan: 0:01

Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Khannecting the Dots. I've been meaning to do some episodes on immigration for a while now, but things have gone from bad to worse really fast. It's been hard to keep up. I hope I can provide just a little bit of context to what's going on. Let's take a quick look at the situation right now. First, we have these ice raids in which all semblance of going after the violent criminals is completely gone. Now they're just picking up immigrants at work. Those looking for jobs are just following the law and checking in with their officers. These raids and arrests are tearing families apart and leaving immigrant communities in fear. They've also sparked a public outcry, leading the protests first in LA and now spreading all over in the LA protests. There were some reported clashes with ICE and the police. But the President called it Mass Chaos and deployed 4,000 National Guard over the objections of the governor and the mayor of la. That's something that hasn't happened since 1965, and worse yet, the guard have been authorized to detain citizens until police can arrest them. If that wasn't bad enough, Trump has also deployed 700 Marines. While they supposedly won't be carrying live ammunition, we're still seeing US military forces deployed against American citizens who are simply exercising their first amendment right to protest. Remember, despite some skirmishes, the majority of protests have been peaceful and restricted to a few blocks of downtown la. It's not mass chaos as the administration claims. And things have the potential to get a lot worse. Protests are spreading throughout the country. In cities like San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. With many more to come this Saturday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is already calling out the National Guard while the president has threatened to send National Guard troops to San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta. To top it all off, we still have Trump's threats to invoke the Insurrection Act, labeling the current protests as an act of rebellion. If he does. It will allow him to fully deploy the US military against American citizens. The last time that happened was in 1992 when the Governor of California requested federal assistance to stop the riots after the Rodney King beating. But as of now, most of these states aren't requesting, and there's no rebellion happening. It is not like we have a large group of people trying to storm the capitol and kill members of Congress or something. Now that would be an insurrection. With the situation escalating as it is, there's no time like the present to kick off my four-part series on immigration in America. My goal to really dig into what's going on, what's working, what's broken, and what's being twisted for political gain, I. I hope to get behind the headlines and try to answer a tough but crucial question. Is immigration the main problem or is it the politics around it? Let's start by looking at how we got to this critical point throughout the campaign. Trump promised the largest deportation effort in American history. Since he's come into office, ice rates have increased. As have deportations, but it wasn't enough. Trump wants to deport a million immigrants this year. Behind the scenes. Top officials like Steven Miller and Christine Nome are pushing ice to move faster. With that kind of push, it was inevitable that we'd get to this point, but is this really what we want for our country? Is this really who we are? Like I said. Trump and his allies have been beating the immigration drum for years. We've all heard the catchphrases, border crisis invasion. They're taking our jobs and kick them out. He was elected despite, or I guess because of that rhetoric. So that's gotta be what the people want, right? Well, not exactly. It depends on how you ask the question. Sure polled social support. When you talk vaguely about deporting undocumented immigrants, especially those with criminal records, but when you get into specifics, people who've lived here for years who have jobs, clean records, families support for mass deportations, drops fast using the military to round up undocumented immigrants. Very unpopular. And yet. Mass deportation is exactly what's happening. The military is supporting ice. So again, I ask, how did we get here? Before I can answer that question, let's start by looking at how immigration affects us all. It touches everything, our economy. Our communities, our politics, our national identity, and right now the conversation happening in America isn't really about immigration policy. It's about something much deeper competing visions of who we are as a country and who we want to be. Let me tell you why this issue matters to me personally. My parents are immigrants. They came to the US with almost nothing. Worked hard and built a life that I benefit from every single day. Their sacrifice and story isn't unique. It's the American story repeated millions of times o over generations. But today, immigration feels more contentious than it has in decades. So over these next few episodes, I'm gonna take a deep dive into immigration and how it affects us all the economic impacts. History, the reasons behind the border crisis, and confront some of the uncomfortable truths about fear, identity, and power in America. But first, let's take a look at the immigration landscape today. Let's start by looking at the numbers. As of 2025, there are about 53.5 million immigrants living in the us. That's 15.8% of the population. The highest share since well really ever, about three quarters are here legally. The rest, somewhere between 12 million to 15 million or about three to 4% of the total US population are undocumented. The number of illegal immigrants increased dramatically during the Biden administration with many conservatives. Including Marco Rubio and JD Vance claiming there are over 30 million undocumented immigrants in the US. Now, a number most experts believe is a gross over exaggeration. It's true. Border encounter surge during the Biden administration in 2023, there were multiple months of over 200,000 encounters at the Southwest border. Peaking at over 370,000 in December of 2023, but those numbers started to fall long before Trump won the election and took office. Plus, when looking at who's crossing the border, it's important to note that the nature of immigration has changed dramatically over the decades. The US used to experience circular migration patterns where workers would cross seasonally for jobs and then return home. Ironically, increased porter enforcement discouraged this type of migration, leading many to settle permanently rather than risk multiple crossings. Nowadays, most immigrants are families fleeing violence, persecution, and economic collapse. In Central America, Venezuela, Haiti and beyond economic turmoil, gang violence and political repression in these regions have fueled new displacement. These crises have been building for years, if not decades, but COVI significantly worsened global incivility. These asylum seekers who they may rely on smugglers to navigate Mexico's dangerous routes, ultimately seek out border agents rather than try to evade them. They're following the legal process established under both US and international law, which guarantees the right to seek asylum when physically present in the United States. What happens to these asylum seekers when they finally reach the us? That's where our system completely breaks down. There are over 3 million pending immigration cases in our courts right now. People have been waiting four, five, sometimes even eight years for their asylum hearings. That's not a system that works. That's bureaucratic collapse. You'd think the obvious response would be to fix this broken system, hire more immigration judges, lawyers, streamline the process, create more legal pathways, but that's not what's happening. Immigration judges are being fired, and this bureaucratic failure has become fuel for something much more dangerous. Conspiracy theories about why so many people are coming and anguishing here in the first place. And that brings us to a once fringe idea that is now central to our government's policies. The great replacement theory. You may have heard of it. Especially after the mass shootings in Buffalo, El Paso and Pittsburgh, and the riots in Charlottesville, where the shooters and the rioters specifically cited this theory. But like I said, the scary thing is this isn't just fringe anymore. A recent poll found that 42% of Americans and nearly three quarters of Republicans believe elected officials are increasing immigration to bring in obedient voters. This theory basically states there's some coordinated plot, often blamed on Jewish people, Democrats or shadowy elites. To deliberately bring in non-white immigrants to replace the white Christian majority in America. The most extreme versions claim that this is about eliminating white people entirely. The more mainstream political version suggests Democrats are importing voters to create a permanent political majority. A few months ago, you might have heard Elon Musk echoing related claims in his interview with Don Lemon. Suggesting that Democrats benefit from illegal immigration because undocumented immigrants are counted in the census, which supposedly shifts house seats and electoral votes to blue states Musk claim that Democrats would lose 20 house seats if illegals weren't counted, is blatantly untrue. This whole theory is both factually wrong. And historically ignorant, the factual problems are obvious. Immigrants can't even vote even when people do become citizens, naturalized citizens actually vote at lower rates than native born Americans, 54% versus 62% in the 2016 elections. Musk's specific claim about house seats is also wrong. Research shows that the actual impact would likely be only one to three seats. Shifting between states, not 20, and here's what Musk conveniently ignores Republican controlled states like Texas and Florida would also lose congressional seats if undocumented immigrants weren't counted. Since both of those states are home to large undocumented populations and there's no guarantee those states would only lose Democratic seats. But the historical ignorance is even more striking. America has always been defined by demographic change. A century ago, people didn't consider Irish Italian or Jewish immigrants to be white. They were seen as foreign, dangerous, un assimilable, sound familiar. Today, their descendants are just Americans. The replacement theory is a modern remix of an old song, and it's being used as stoke fear about change, about identity, about who gets to belong. Let's be honest about what's really driving the immigration debate, because it's not actually about immigration policy. It's about identity, power, and fear. At its core, this is about competing visions of what America is. And who gets to be American? One Vision sees diversity as strength, as part of our historic identity as a nation of immigrants. The other sees it as a threat to something essential about American culture, identity and financial stability. The economic anxiety out there is real, but instead of addressing the root causes of economic insecurity, things like wage stagnation, automation. Declining power of unions or the dramatic concentration of wealth that's occurred in the past 40 years, it's easier to blame immigrants. This is classic scapegoating. It's happened throughout American history. When the economy is struggling, when people feel left behind, politicians find it convenient to point at the other and say they're the problem, but here's the ugly truth. Politicians benefit from keeping this problem unsolved. Think about it, if If you're running on a fix, immigration, but you never fix it, you get to keep campaigning on it forever. Just look at what happened to the immigration bill in 2024. That's exactly what Trump did. He killed the bill so he can run on immigration, and that's essentially what politicians have been doing for the last 30 years. Kicking the can down the road as long it as it gets them back into office. Like I said, these aren't new debates. We've had them about every immigrant group in American history. Benjamin Franklin worried that German immigrants would make Pennsylvania too foreign. Irish Catholics were seen as unable to assimilate Chinese immigrants. Faced literal exclusion laws. Immigration has become the perfect wedge issue because it touches on economics, culture, race, and identity all at once. The issue is more weaponized now because with social media and the internet. It's in our face constantly. Plus, even the most fringe views can be shared openly and amplified a thousand times over. Let's actually take a look at the big myths surrounding undocumented immigrants and tackle them head on. Myth number one, they're taking our jobs. Actually, immigrants are twice as likely to start businesses as people born here. They create jobs. I. Undocumented immigrants specifically are crucial to many sectors of the economy. Fulfilling jobs. Most citizens won't take their jobs, often compliment US citizens not compete against them. Myth number two, there are drain on the economy that's blatantly false. Undocumented immigrants paid$96.7 billion in taxes in 2022. More than a third of those tax dollars went to programs. They can't even use like$25.7 billion to Social Security and$6.4 billion to Medicare for every 1 million undocumented immigrants. Public services gained$8.9 billion in tax revenue. In fact, undocumented immigrants paid an effective federal income tax rate of 5.27% in 2022, higher than some of the wealthiest Americans and 55 mega corporations. Myth number three, they commit more crimes. Not true. Study after study shows that immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born here. An NIJ funded study examining data from Texas found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born citizens for violent crimes. If there were actually 30 million undocumented immigrants as some claim, then incarceration rates for illegal immigrants would be about 15% below that of illegal immigrants and almost 80% below that of native born citizens that would make illegal immigrants the most law abiding subpopulation in the United States ever. Myth number four, they don't assimilate. Wrong again. Within 10 years, 87% of immigrants documented or undocumented learn to speak English. Their kids often outperform native born kids in college completion. Myth number five, they abuse Medicaid. The facts tell a different story. Undocumented immigrants aren't eligible for Medicaid. Only emergency care is covered representing less than 1% of total Medicaid spending. You might hear politicians like Iowa Senator Joni Ernst cite 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid, but that's misleading. This figure refers to state funded health programs, not federal Medicaid, and it includes people who are actually here legally, but haven't yet adjusted their status. And here's the part that's not talked about enough. Many immigrants, especially undocumented ones, are being exploited, doing brutal labor for pennies by picking onions for 20 cents a bucket, afraid to speak up. They're not gaming the system. The system is gaming them. Like I said, under Myth one. Even those that aren't being exploited are taking jobs. Most US foreign citizens won't take, if they all get deported, what's gonna happen to those jobs And the crucial role they play in keeping our economy running. So here's what really matters. Undocumented immigrants make up just 5% of the workforce, but in some industries they're essential. One in seven construction workers, one in eight agricultural workers. I. One in 14 hospital workers, if undocumented immigrants were given work authorization, their tax contributions could jump to$136.9 billion a year. A$40 billion per year increase. That would benefit everyone who depends on social security, Medicare, and public services. How about for immigrants in general? Well, they own nearly one in five businesses. Helped found 55% of billion dollar companies and the 40% of Fortune five hundreds. And what about the border? Like I said earlier, the surge was cooling even before Trump took office. Monthly encounters started dropping by over 60% since mid 2024. By December, 2024, border encounters dropped by 81% compared to the previous year. Even with the border crisis and massive influx of immigrants, Biden's term saw some of the lowest unemployment in modern history, especially for US citizens, down to just 3.4% at one point. The total unemployment rate remained below 4% for 27 months straight, the longest. It's been that low since the late 1960s. That doesn't sound like our jobs are being taken. What's my point here? It's this. Most migrants aren't a drain on our economy, stealing our jobs, or breaking the law. It's the system that's broken and failing them. Here's what'll help you take away from today's episode. The immigration debate you see on cable news and social media isn't about real solutions. It's about stoking fear. It's about distraction. It's about consolidating power by attacking the most marginalized in our society. When someone blames immigrants for our problems, you should wonder what are they distracting you from When they talk about replacing American workers ask in what jobs. Remember, unemployment was at record low through much of the Biden administration, despite the surge in immigrants. Legal and illegal when they talk about preserving culture, whose culture do they mean? American culture has always been shaped by the immigrants who come to this country. Our history has been written by immigrants from the very beginning, and every generation has had decide to be given to fear. Or do we live up to our ideals? Would we follow the mantra etched onto the Statue of Liberty, or live up to the ideals voiced by Ronald Reagan in his final presidential address? Or do we give into fear, indifference and hate? Remember, behind every statistic is a human story of hope, struggle, and conviction. The answers to the immigration conundrum have alluded us for far too long. But they do exist out there. The problem is that to implement any plan requires sustained political will and comprehensive reform. But the sad truth is that too many people benefit politically from keeping the system broken. Thanks for joining me today in the start of our journey into the story of immigration. Next episode we're going to, we're going back to the beginning, reviewing the long arc of American immigration history and how the US got to the broken system we have today. We'll explore how past immigration debates from the Chinese Exclusion Act to Reagan's amnesty in the 1980s shaped today's policies and why nation of immigrants has always been a contested ideal. Thanks again for listening to Khannecting the dots. If you found this episode helpful, do me a favor, share, subscribe, and leave a review. Until next time, stay curious, stay critical, and stay connected.