For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That applies not only to Newtonian physics but also to markets, even in things like housing.
Doral, Florida, is a suburb of Miami, peopled heavily with Venezuelan immigrants. Some of them are citizens, some are in the country legally, and some are not in the country legally. According to a piece in Monday's Wall Street Journal, some of these people are leaving Doral, in no small part due to President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, resulting in a spike in Doral's rental housing vacancy rate.
That's a good thing. Here's why.
The two-story, terracotta-roof home in a gated community known as Doral Landings East seemed ideal for the Venezuelan family of four who moved in two years ago. Neighbors were surprised when one day the family disappeared, skipping out on rent, their landlord said, and leaving much of their furniture behind.
One by one, Venezuelans and other immigrants are starting to disappear from Doral, a Miami suburb on the doorstep of the Everglades known for a Trump resort where President Trump plans to host the G-20 summit next year.
Many Venezuelans are here with temporary legal permission to live and work in the U.S., part of a series of immigration programs expanded under the Biden administration. The Trump administration is trying to revoke that permission, leaving more than one million foreigners from various countries in some kind of legal limbo, depending on their type of status.
Many. Not all. It seems certain that some are here illegally, among the estimated 10-20 million people in the United States illegally. That's an important distinction that this WSJ article doesn't make. People who are in the country legally, particularly a family of four, don't just decamp in the middle of the night, leaving possessions behind, unless they have some reason to be fearful of a deportation effort aimed at illegal aliens.
In other words, they were likely not in the country legally.
But wait! There's more!
Few, if any, places in the U.S. are feeling the effects of the immigration-policy change more acutely than Doral, where about 40% of its 80,000 residents were born in Venezuela or are of Venezuelan descent.
Some Venezuelans have lived here for decades, eventually becoming American citizens and having American-born children. Others are more-recent arrivals who built lives here over the past few years under the government’s temporary programs.
Temporary. Or temporal, if you like. There's an understanding that "temporary" means "not forever."
Now, for those of Venezuelan background who have studied, become citizens, and are raising families here as citizens, great. Welcome. More power to you. But your illegal alien compadres are going home.
Remember when I said this was a good thing? It's a good thing because this will, sooner or later, drive down some prices in multi-family rental housing. Those options are often used by people of modest means - people that Democrats always claim to care about - and this surplus of housing will eventually lower rents, as the vacancy rate increases. That's how you attract renters. That's how you keep renters. And yes, this is a good thing.
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The Wall Street Journal, though, does itself no favors with tidbits like this:
“They’re all telling me, ‘No, I can’t stay, my [temporary status] is expiring,” said Maria Eugenia Nucete, a Venezuelan-American real-estate agent who has worked in Doral for decades. In March, she lost a Venezuelan tenant who moved to Italy, she said.
Doral’s mayor, Republican Christi Fraga, says the rise in vacancies reflects a mix of factors, though immigrants leaving the city because they are fearful of being picked up by federal agents is part of it.
“I do personally know of some families that have self-deported. Their status was unsure and they didn’t want to be here illegally,” Fraga said. “I’m sure it will affect the housing market to a certain extent.”
Their status was unsure? Listen, I've traveled extensively around the world. I've had extended stays in one particular country - Japan. Believe you me, I was always keenly aware of what my visa status was, when it expired, and what to do if I was asked to stay in the country longer. When I visited China, fortunately only for a few days, the Chinese visa application not only demanded to know when you were arriving and leaving, but what flights you were arriving and leaving on, and woe be to anyone who overstayed.
Because, you know, otherwise everyone would want to stay in the Worker's Paradise, right?
That's the immigrant's responsibility, to know what their status is. Nobody else's. If they are unsure, then they should go home; Homeland Security will give them a plane ticket and a cool grand to self-deport.
Meanwhile, in the communities they leave, they leave cheaper rental housing behind, at least for a while.
Seems like a win-win to me.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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