Photo: AFP
The entire country is looking forward to the end of the border crisis after Trump takes office next week, especially small towns across the U.S. They've had to bear the brunt of the population increase from the border crisis, and it hasn't been easy.
Art Arthur with the Center for Immigration Studies says they just aren't built to handle that much growth that quickly. He said, "When you're talking about millions of people, when they're concentrated in small towns that aren't used to huge population increases, it's a particular problem."
This was an issue that was highlighted by Springfield, Ohio during the campaign. At the center of the discourse around the town was the fact that a population of 20,000 Haitian migrants had overtaken the town, which had an initial population of under 60,000 people.
Arthur says that situations like this place massive burdens on both public and social services in these communities. He said, "We see property taxes going up, we see traffic increase. You know, there's been no allocation to provide for these people."
He went on to add that it's difficult for city and school budgets to be adjusted to account for these rapid population increases because they're often planned years in advance.
The worst part is, this isn't a problem that's going to just go away overnight. Arthur says that, "Even under a mass-deportation program, you're still going to be left with millions of people who are going to be here, who are going to have to be accounted for over the next decade."