C.D.C Confirms It Will Lift Public Health Order Restricting Immigration
Posted by Nina Armideo, Colgate University Class of 2022
Source: Sullivan, E. (2022, April 1). C.D.C. Confirms It Will Lift Public Health Order Restricting Immigration. The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/us/politics/cdc-immigration-title-42.html
On May 23, the United States will lift Title 42, an order which gives border officials control to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from entering the United States. This was an emergency public health order which was intended to reduce the spread of the pandemic. The use of this policy has had harmful welfare effects on migrants who are in unsafe living conditions amidst the border. The current new normal with COVID-19 is causing officials to question its use of it as a health-protective measure. Now “97.1 percent of the U.S. population lives in a county identified as having ‘low’ Covid-19 community level” and “immigrants [are] not a driving force in the spread of the coronavirus in the United States” (Sullivan, 2022). There is currently an immense amount of people arriving at the southwestern border from Latin America and across the globe waiting for entrance. Once the order is lifted next month, there will be an influx of thousands of migrants hoping to cross the southwestern border.
Changing the policy will have immediate effects on the wages in the labor supply and demand model– loosening boarding restrictions will increase the supply of labor. Economic analysis often finds that an increase in immigration, while hiring some workers by lowering wages, yields benefits for other workers. In addition to wage effects, it will be interesting to see a range of fiscal costs and benefits as it relates to the state and local level such as welfare, education, and healthcare.
3 thoughts on “C.D.C Confirms It Will Lift Public Health Order Restricting Immigration”
This will be very interesting to follow in the coming weeks as we reach May 23rd. I’m curious to know how the public will react with such a large number of immigrants coming into the country. In addition to the economic impacts stated in this post, I wonder in what ways both political parties will try to use this to their own advantage, especially with midterm elections at the end of the year.
It will be interesting to see how the US labor force responds to this influx of immigrants on the southwest borders. I wonder if native born workers will move into other sectors that require more communication skills or if they will move farther away from the southwest border to be less effected by the increase in the labor supply. It also be interesting to see if any firms change their production methods to accommodate for more manual labor. I would also assume that many of these incoming immigrants have children. In the short run I imagine many schools along the southwest border will have trouble accommodating for so many more children very quickly.
Nina, I really enjoyed your blog post. I am curious to see how the United States labor markets will respond to this influx of immigrants that are arriving at the southwest border. I am curious to see if the United States border patrol is placing extra measures to prepare for the increased amount of people trying to get into the country. I also enjoyed to think about Ryan’s comment regarding how political parties will attempt to use this to their advantage. With the polarization of politics surrounding immigration, it will certainly be interesting to see the stance that each party takes.