The release of a new bombshell economic report sheds light on what the Biden administration did to American communities by sanctioning the largest immigrant flow into the country during his presidency — largely supporting what President Donald Trump and his allies have been claiming about the downsides of illegal immigration.
The working paper, authored by economists associated with the Federal Reserve banks of Dallas and San Francisco, looks into the “Impacts of Unauthorized Immigration on U.S. Labor and Housing Markets” by using both publicly available and government data.
The most shocking finding of the study is that “[Unauthorized immigrant worker flow] explains roughly 30% of total employment growth over March 2021 to March 2024 in the average [commuting zone].” In other words, 3 in 10 nonfarm jobs created during most of former President Joe Biden’s term were worked by illegal immigrants. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 14 million jobs were added in that period, meaning about 4.2 million of those jobs were worked by illegal immigrants — although this number includes a national dataset, rather than regional ones.
One of the big talking points that won Republicans majorities in the Senate and House and secured the presidency was that illegal immigrants let in under Biden were wreaking havoc on the housing and job markets. According to this study, Republicans were almost completely correct on this point.
“We find that unauthorized immigrant worker flows increased local house prices and rents, without significantly expanding new housing supply,” the authors conclude. “During the boom period an increase in [illegal immigrants] equal to 1% of a local area’s initial employment increased local house prices by 2.2% and increased local rents by 1.4%.”
Trump supporters were called bigots and xenophobes for criticizing the government’s blind eye to illegal immigration in their communities. While they cited rising housing costs and rent, they were often shut down for not approaching the situation with an “inclusive” mindset. But when housing costs increase by 2.2% in areas affected by illegal immigrants, being “inclusive” to illegal immigrants means excluding legal citizens.
When it became clear during Trump’s first year back in office that his immigration policies were turning around the housing crisis, left-wing officials and the media began to argue that foreign-born workers are the cornerstone of the U.S. economy.
In April 2025, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) told a Baptist congregation, “The fact is ain’t none of y’all trying to go and farm right now.”
“We’re done picking cotton. We are,” Crockett said. “You can’t pay us enough to find a plantation.”
Similarly, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said in a February 2025 speech, “If you look at the food that’s on your table, think about who picked it. If you look at your homes, think about who built them. If you look at your vulnerable elders and your kids, think about who’s taking care of them.”
Before the data were clear, anti-illegal immigrant advocates were called xenophobic. After the data were out, Democrats shamed us for wanting to disrupt the supply chain — all while they told us that illegal immigrants had no effect on the labor force.
The study also focused on the change in wages in regions with illegal immigrants. It found there was little difference between the employment rates of authorized and unauthorized workers, but that the presence of unauthorized workers lowers the wage rate.
“We find a negative and significant effect of [unauthorized migrant worker flow] on per capita labor income growth, which is consistent with the expected negative effect on average wages from a labor supply shock and … that unauthorized immigrants typically earn lower wages than native-born workers,” the report said.
The study found that there is roughly a 1-to-1 connection between the increase of illegal immigrants employed in a region and the decrease of wages in that region. We were all told this could not possibly be true by the legacy media’s talking heads.
For example, Greg Iacurci, an economics reporter for CNBC, wrote in a September 2024 article that “Evidence suggests immigrants help the overall economy. And, at a high level, they aren’t taking jobs from or reducing the wages of U.S.-born (or so-called native) workers, according to economists who study the impact of immigration on the labor market.”
WHY DOES OLD GLORY HAVE TO BE CONTROVERSIAL?
This new study is not the first to use data to prove that illegal immigrants have been a strain on the economy by taking American jobs, lowering wages, and increasing housing costs. Rather, in the right context, the study proves that Democrats have been willfully ignoring the truth about illegal immigration for years on end.
The issue with illegal immigration isn’t that American citizens are upset over a foreign invasion. Instead, American citizens are concerned that our government disregards us in favor of people who are alien to the land.