Republican governors are calling on the Biden administration to release more detailed statistics on immigration and asylum processing, while accusing President Biden of incentivizing “illegal immigration.”
In a letter to Biden on Tuesday, 25 governors spearheaded by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) asked for detailed information on “where the migrants admitted at the southern border are being relocated in the United States, in addition to comprehensive data on asylum claim timelines and qualification rates, and successful deportations.”
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) was the only sitting Republican governor who did not sign the letter.
Beyond requesting information, the signatories used the bulk of the letter to attack Biden’s record on migration and border security.
The governors conflated border crossings, public safety, terrorism and the fentanyl epidemic as part of a singular issue, a controversial approach that’s drawn criticism from experts on those topics.
“In the past two years, 244 people on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the southern border — an all-time record. Absent transparency from your administration, though, we cannot know how many terrorists have evaded capture and are now freely moving about the country,” wrote the governors.
In a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute vice president for economic and social policy studies, explained why rising terrorist watchlist encounters “do not indicate a threat of increased terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.”
The watchlist, Nowrasteh said, yields many false positives, and the framework of the watchlist “leads to more people being added to the [list] than is warranted.”
From 1975 to 2022, Nowrasteh said, only nine known terrorists have illegally crossed the southern border, and none has perpetrated attacks leading to deaths or injuries.
“During that time, the number of people murdered in attacks on U.S. soil committed by a foreign-born terrorist who entered illegally was zero. The number of people injured in an attack committed by a foreign-born terrorist who entered illegally was zero. Suffice to say, the number of people killed or injured by an illegal immigrant [terrorist] who entered illegally across the U.S.-Mexico border is also zero,” said Nowrasteh.
Yet the Biden administration has shown political vulnerability on border issues, and a growing number of migrant arrivals at the southwest border threatens to keep the issue front and center.
The 25 governors also accused the federal government of turning a blind eye to the fiscal effects of illegal immigration.
“Analysts estimate the annual net cost of illegal immigration for the United States at the federal, state, and local levels is at least $150.7 billion,” they wrote.
Although the governors did not cite a source for that figure, a March report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a restrictionist advocacy organization, arrived at that same figure.
Estimates on the net fiscal cost of immigrants and specifically undocumented immigrants have historically varied wildly.
A broad 2017 study published by the National Academies of Sciences found that immigrants have a small fiscal effect overall, and found the most important variables to predict a person’s net fiscal impact were age of arrival and educational attainment, not immigration status.
A 2023 Cato Institute update of that study found that fiscal effects of immigration are generally more positive for the federal government, “and a somewhat negative impact on the finances of state/local governments.”
The immediate fiscal effects of newly arrived migrants have created tension between Biden and Democratic mayors and governors, particularly New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The 25 GOP governors highlighted that rift.
“This is not a partisan issue. Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated, ‘This is not a New York City problem. This is a national problem…. [Funding for the influx of migrants to New York City is] going to come from our schools’ services. It’s going to come from our streets. It’s going to come from what we provide to children,'” wrote the governors, adding that Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) declared a state of emergency, calling the issue “a federal crisis of inaction.”
The GOP governors’ call for data contrasted with calls from Democratic state and local officials, many of whom have called for Biden to focus his efforts on speeding up work permits for migrants in the country.
The Republicans called on the Biden administration to release the immigration data “immediately, but also regularly as the crisis at the southern border continues.”
“Without such information, we cannot fulfill our fundamental duties to protect our citizens while providing our communities with appropriate services,” they wrote.