Why immigration has strengthened the economy
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 February 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A record number of migrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, and Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on a solution to address the crisis. But data shows that this surge has strengthened the U.S. economy.
Read more:
On Thursday, President Biden and former president Donald Trump traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border, underscoring how central immigration is in this year’s presidential campaign.
As Biden and Trump clash over how to address immigration at the southern border — and as Congress stalls on a border deal — data shows that this immigration has actually propelled the U.S. job market further than expected, helping cement the country’s economic rebound as the most robust in the world.
“Immigration, it turns out, has played an absolutely crucial role in that growth,” says economics reporter Rachel Siegel. “There is absolutely no way — economists told me — that we could have seen the kind of booming labor market — especially over the past year — without a really strong surge in immigration in 2023.”
Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson, with help from Rennie Svirnovskiy. It was mixed by Sean Carter and edited by Lucy Perkins. Thanks also to Lauren Kaori Gurley and Meryl Kornfield.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | President Biden and former President Trump are both at the US-Mexico border today |
| 0:06.8 | and two of our reporters have been out there with them. |
| 0:09.3 | Hi, my name is Mary Ann Levine and I am a reporter with the Washington Post where I cover national politics |
| 0:15.9 | Right now I am in Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, which is a border town |
| 0:20.9 | Right now as I look out I can see the river that marks the |
| 0:24.6 | divide between the US-Mexico border. There are National Guard troops everywhere. |
| 0:29.1 | I look to my left and I can see a bridge where there are many cars lined up to cross the US-Mexico |
| 0:35.8 | border. |
| 0:39.3 | Trump has mentioned that he plans to enact the largest mass deportation operation in history |
| 0:45.8 | He is talked about wanting to reinstate the travel ban he had |
| 0:51.8 | That affected several Muslim majority countries and he has made the border a central |
| 0:57.1 | issue in the 2024 presidential race. On the other side of this split screen, more than 300 miles away in Texas, is President Biden. |
| 1:10.0 | My name is Yasmina Bhutalup, and I'm a White House reporter with the Washington Post. |
| 1:15.0 | I'm here at the Brownsville Border Patrol Station where President Biden is scheduled to speak today. |
| 1:22.0 | He's expected to come and blame former |
| 1:26.0 | President Trump and congressional Republicans for killing a border security |
| 1:30.4 | deal that he says he was eager and willing to sign into law that would have |
| 1:34.9 | provided for the hiring of thousands of new Border Patrol agents, asylum officers |
| 1:39.4 | and included a trigger mechanism to effectively shut down the border if it got overwhelmed. |
| 1:45.7 | This has been a critical issue for President Biden throughout his presidency. |
| 1:50.4 | Polls show voters widely disapprove of his handling handling and he's now trying to take |
| 1:54.6 | control back of the issue by putting the blame on Trump. Both Trump and Biden are there to talk about how they would address what Americans |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.