How Big is Richmond, VA? [Joe Mannix]

Richmond is a big place, but regular in terms of its bigness. Richmond is home to around 225,000 people per the Census Bureau. This population is spread over around 90,000 households, around 45% of which own their own home. It has labor force participation of 66.2%, which is higher than the national average of 62.4% per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median household income is $51,421, which is a bit poorer than the national average. Richmond is also home to around 19,000 businesses. It takes up a physical area of around 60 square miles.

So what makes Richmond special? If you ask the people who live there, probably many things like the fact that it is the capital of Virginia or its rich history or its various eateries and attractions or its weather or any number of other things. Statistically, though, not much. It is a midsized American city and in many ways a fairly typical one. It isn't a mega-city like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Dallas-Fort Worth. Despite this, it isn't a no-name pimple on the map, either. It is a bit poorer than average and has a different racial mix than you'll see in many places, but Richmond is a fairly normal place. A lot of people live and work there, too. It's a real place, but it is big enough to be known by most and have name recognition. Most people can imagine Richmond if you asked them to, even if they've never been there. This is in part because Richmond is an accessible and understandable if not exceptional example of the midsized American city.

But this post isn't about Richmond, VA. This post is about illegal immigration.

The problems are huge and they are growing. Brandon is going to let the emergency measures controlling immigration expire in May. These measures, put into place under Trump as a public health measure under Title 42, did a lot. They enforced the "Remain in Mexico" policy for "asylum seekers," and returned a lot of captured illegal aliens to Mexico. The constant tide of illegal migration was reduced. Reduced, but by no means eliminated. In 2021, the CBP estimated they expelled around 1.3 million illegal aliens in the Southwest. Per MSNBC, the number is closer to two million.

But that was last year. This year is going to be worse. How much worse? According to one of Ace's posts last week, CBP is estimating that the migrant flow will double over last year's already staggering total. And with Brandon in office, "remain in Mexico" will be eliminated, Title 42 public-health measures will expire, and the door will be wide open for all comers. Many or most of those flowing will enter. Four million people.

Four million is a lot. It's big enough to usefully express in terms of percentage of total. That is about 1.21% of the American population. But even that is hard to understand. I can't really visualize 1% of the entire country. I don't know what it means. But I know what Richmond, VA means. On average, every month, one entire Richmond, VA will enter this country illegally. Over the course of the year, it will be one entire Seattle, WA. Not the city of Seattle, mind you, but the entire metropolitan area.

A Richmond a month will have consequences. The scale is nearly incomprehensible and its effects will be varied. We've already seen some of it. The problems with illegal alien influxes range from tangible things like housing and employment pressure and the catastrophic costs of services for them to the intangible things like the changes to the larger culture and erosion of the single language that binds us. Those problems have been bad and growing for decades, and Brandon is about to throw a lot of fuel on the fire.

It is long since past time to deal with this problem - and this problem could be dealt with. Reject asylum claims. Deport illegals aggressively. Build the wall. Tax remittances back to Latin America at punitive rates. Use trade policy to pressure the Mexican government into cleaning up their internal affairs, tackling the cartels and securing their southern border. Five or six years of that treatment and the migratory flow would stop. But we don't do it and we won't do it. Far too many people are gaining far too much wealth and power to permit it.

But c'est la vie. What's one measly Richmond, VA per month? It's a small price to pay to keep our ruling classes and culture warriors fat and happy while we end up broke and muddling along and trying to survive in a country we no longer recognize.

posted by Open Blogger at 12:00 PM

| Access Comments