New York City is regifting migrants to Minnesota
The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a headline yesterday noting that Minnesota is among the top states to which New York City is redirecting its excess illegal immigrant arrivals. The Star Tribune writes,
Minnesota has emerged as a top destination for migrants accepting free plane tickets to leave New York City, as homeless shelters there strain to house a record surge of asylum-seekers.
Data released by the city shows that over roughly the past two years, 1,177 migrants have taken tickets to Minnesota—the fifth most popular destination.
The Star Tribune notes that these new arrivals are adding to the record backlog at the local immigration court, located in Ft. Snelling.
Overall, a record 35,443 pending cases await the state’s immigration court.
Cutting through the euphemisms, those 35,000 face potential deportation, at some point in the far distant future. AlphaNews digs deeper into the immigration court numbers here.
By shear coincidence, roughly 35,000 corresponds to the number of net “international” migrants arriving in Minnesota in recent years, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. These new arrivals join a foreign-born population in Minnesota that already exceeds 500,000.
A 2019 estimate of the size of the illegal immigrant population in Minnesota pegs the number at 81,000, with the majority from Mexico and Central America.
That number is surely higher today. With illegal immigrants now eligible for free college tuition, free health insurance, and legal drivers licenses in Minnesota, among other taxpayer-funded benefits, look for that number to surge.
As my colleague John Phelan has been documenting, these new unauthorized arrivals are more than offset by local residents moving out. Minnesota is not alone among states losing population to other locales.
The Census Bureau’s numbers of which states benefit from shifting domestic migration patterns almost exactly match the “U-Haul Index” of one-way truck rentals.
U-Haul published its latest index of one-rentals early this month, with the usual results. Texas finished at No. 1 for the third year in a row, among net gainers. Florida, the Carolinas, and Tennessee round out the top five.
Not all the top states offer warm weather. Idaho, Washington, Colorado, and Vermont finished 6th, 7th, 9th, and 12th respectively in the index.
Minnesota fell from 17th to 20th last year.
The bottom dwellers offer no surprises. California finished dead last for the fourth year in a row. Rounding out the bottom five are four northern, Democrat-run states: Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, and Michigan.
It’s U-Haul democracy.