People seeking work are a large portion of illegal immigrants in the U.S. but not eligible for asylum. However, many claim asylum to gain entry and work.
Primary drivers of immigration to the U.S. include people fleeing persecution, violence, and lack of employment. People fleeing persecution may be eligible for asylum in the U.S. To be eligible for asylum, migrants must be:
“Inside the United States” and “Able to demonstrate that you were persecuted or have a fear of persecution in your home country due to your: Race, Religion, Nationality, Social group, Political opinion.” (3)
The asylum process includes an initial “credible fear” screening during which migrants are interviewed by an asylum officer and given the opportunity to explain their persecution or fear of persecution. Migrants found to have a credible asylum eligibility claim are referred to immigration court. Those found to not have a credible claim are deported or may appeal the decision to an immigration judge. (4)
However, a December 2023 New York Times article on people seeking asylum in the U.S. noted
“Migrants from across the world who arrive at the southern U.S. border often claim asylum after being picked up by Border Patrol agents. These migrants can be detained and taken for an initial asylum screening. But more commonly, because of the dwindling capacity to detain people at the border, they are released and put in the immigration court system to have their asylum claims determined there in a few years.” (5)
Thus, economic migrants, who are not eligible for asylum, can use the asylum process to enter the U.S. and remain for many years due to a large backlog in the immigration courts. Pending cases are estimated to be 3 million (6).
Data suggest that a large fraction of the migrants at the southern border are economic migrants seeking employment rather than fleeing persecution.
The New York Times article noted:
“The Biden administration has acknowledged that the asylum claims of many migrants are not legitimate. In a regulation issued earlier this year, U.S. officials noted that while 83 percent of people who claimed fear to prevent a quick deportation at the border from 2014 to 2019 overcame the initial asylum screening, just 15 percent of them were ultimately able to obtain asylum in immigration court.”
The article also noted
“Immigration experts believe the statistics cited by the government can be misleading and are more complicated than they appear.”
But while the true percentage of migrants who make asylum claims and eventually receive asylum may differ from the estimate of 15%, this small estimate supports the conclusion that a large fraction of the migrants at the southern border are economic migrants seeking employment rather than fleeing persecution.
Figure 1 is from a November 2023 analysis of Border Patrol – immigrant encounters and U.S. job openings by the Cato Institute. (7) The figure compares non-farm job openings in the U.S. and Border Patrol encounters with migrants at the southern border. There is a strong correlation that suggests the surge in migrants at the border is driven in large part by people looking for work and that is the conclusion of the author.
The author states
“The unsurprising conclusion is that the strength or weakness of the US labor market can explain much, and I’d wager most, of the flow of illegal immigrants across the SW border”
and noted
“The wage gain for immigrants in the United States is already between about a four-fold and ten-fold increase compared to labor in mostly Latin American and Caribbean countries, even accounting for the higher cost of living in the United States. Since legal migration is very restricted, many come illegally to work. There simply are not enough temporary work visas available in enough sectors of the US economy for legal migrant workers to meet the demand, so illegal migrant workers meet it.”
