Steve’s Marketplace: on Illegal Migration 

Opinion

By Steve Nicklas, 1-15-24

Several years ago, unmarked and unannounced flights began arriving on a remote runway at Jacksonville International Airport. Illegal migrants from the southern border filled the planes.  

Our federal government had begun handing illegal migrants free airline tickets to red states like Florida. Alongside popular syndicated blogger Dave Scott, we broke the story in August 2021, months before the lame-street national media.  

A civil-service worker at JIA, a follower of my column for 30 years, alerted me of the late-night flights. The worker asked to remain anonymous. However, he wanted the public to know – the largest invasion of our country was beginning.  

The wide-open border is contaminating the country we once knew. Our hospitals are filled, our schools are crammed, and our communities are hemorrhaging. Further complicating matters, the migrants face a language barrier wider than the Gulf of Mexico. 

The numbers are numbing. Illegals are costing taxpayers $450 billion a year to care for them, according to a recent report from congressional Republicans. And most of the costs are shouldered by individual states, like Florida and Texas. 

 “Only a small fraction is ever recouped from the taxes paid by illegal aliens,” the report said. “With the rest falling on the shoulders of American citizens and lawful residents.” 

In a bold and brilliant maneuver, the red states are sharing the unwelcome visitors with blue states like New York and Illinois and elsewhere. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott set the precedent. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opportunistically followed.  

DeSantis even requested and received money from the state legislature to transport illegals from here to fertile blue grounds. Like to Martha’s Vineyard, for instance.

You remember the revolt. Two planes from Florida landed near the storybook community. It took the progressive, virtuous residents of Martha’s Vineyard less than 24 hours to gather up and remove these visitors from their backyards.  

Meanwhile, the mayor of New York City regularly bellyaches about the illegals he is receiving, mostly from Texas. The New York City public schools are overflowing. And the governor of Illinois is literally begging Abbott to stop sending migrants to his state.  

So much for these self-proclaimed sanctuary cities and states. Anyhow, their cries should be targeted toward President Joe Biden and his administration. They willingly re-opened the southern border, previously closed by former President Donald Trump.

 You can see the disturbing images everywhere. Migrants pouring across the southern border like water through a defunct dam, wearing T-shirts bearing Biden’s name, thanking Biden in broken English for giving them admission to our crumbling country. 

Meanwhile, the Democrats’ traditional voting bloc is also crumbling. Black voters are rejecting the broken promises, and legal Hispanics flee the party in droves, like in Florida.  

The Hispanics cite the same reason. They’ve seen this movie before in the countries they fled as true asylum seekers – and they don’t want to relive the conclusion. It’s called socialism/communism. 

Therefore, it’s time to recharge the Democrat base with illegals as new voters. They can’t vote in most states, but they can in some. Like in California and in New York. And this is only the beginning. 

In the 50-page congressional report, the costs of illegal migration are broken down by medical care, housing, education, welfare benefits, etc. In addition, the implications for law enforcement are astronomical, and difficult to calculate.  

Anywhere from 16 to 29 million illegal migrants live in the U.S. right now, according to estimates. These numbers would exceed the population of New York and even Florida. 

“This report reveals in painstaking detail the costs facing the American people every day that this chaos continues, both in small towns on the border and in big cities like New York,” says Mark Green, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. “It is long past time for this administration to end the reckless, lawless open-borders policies that are bankrupting communities across this country.” 

Steve Nicklas is the managing partner of Nicklas Wealth Management in Fernandina Beach. He is also an award-winning columnist. His columns regularly appear in weekly newspapers in Northeast Florida and in Southeast Georgia, and on his website at www.SteveNicklasMarketplace.com. He has published a book, “All About Money,” of his favorite columns from the past 20 years. The book is available on Amazon. He has also done financial reports for area radio stations and for National Public Radio in Jacksonville. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 904-753-0236.