Major study undercuts Biden explanation for surge in illegal immigration

illegally not because of violence or natural disasters in their home countries but because of jobs, a major new study found, challenging claims that they are asylum-seekers fleeing persecution.

And a staggering 43% of Central Americans have a desire to leave their home countries, up from just 8% a couple of years ago.

Still, nearly 30% of households in the three key countries reported getting money sent back home from a household member working in another country, according to the report, a joint effort by the Migration Policy Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the World Food Programme.

The analysts conducted a 5,000 in-person survey in the spring and ran an online survey with more than 6,000 responses, building a broad picture of the factors pushing people to leave.

They concluded that while violence and insecurity are “longstanding triggers” for migration, most people cited economic reasons for wanting to leave.

The report challenges the vision of the Biden administration, which argues violence and insecurity are pushing folks to leave their homes and head north and characterizes many of the migrants as asylum-seekers.

Vice President Kamala Harris, tapped by President Biden to get to the bottom of the “root causes” of migration, released a report in July blaming a variety of things such as the coronavirus pandemic and climate change for this year’s migrant surge, on top of the usual factors of violence, food insecurity and poverty.

That’s particularly true for Central Americans, and particularly those from the Northern Triangle who have played an increasingly prominent role in the story of illegal immigration to the U.S.

Where Mexicans once dominated, in four of the last five years, the Northern Triangle countries combined to send more people.

While Tuesday’s report looks at what is pushing people to leave their homes, those reasons are inextricably linked to factors in the U.S.

The new report found about 90% of recent migrants from the Northern Triangle countries headed to the U.S.

Annual average incomes in the Northern Triangle countries range from about $2,500 to $4,500.

About a quarter of Northern Triangle households reported that someone in their home attempted to migrate over the past five years.

Insecurity or violence were factors for 8%, which was the same rate as those seeking to reunite with family members already in their destination countries