How immigrants keep U.S. heartland cities afloat
While President Donald Trump frames the immigration debate in terms of border walls and travel bans, a different narrative is emerging in cities such as Chicago and St. Louis, where immigration has helped stabilize struggling local economies and support an otherwise shrinking population.
Ahmed Habibi is the executive director of Habibi Motorsports outside St. Louis.
He came to the U.S. in the 1990s after his family left Iraq, and is now a naturalized citizen.
His father was a mechanic, so Habibi grew up around cars and now he owns a garage where he specializes in custom tuning high-end cars.
(SOUDNBITE) AHMED HABIBI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF HABIBI MOTORSPORTS, SAYING:
"But this will always be my home, I will always have a business here. I don't feel like I will take my business away from St. Louis. If I do expand to another city, it just means I'll have a second location and I won't take this one way."
In St. Louis, if not for the influx of 15,000 foreign-born residents who arrived between 2010 and 2018, the population drop would have been double.
In fact, according to a Reuters analysis of census data covering that same period, immigration reversed what would have been population declines in 18 cities, including Detroit, Milwaukee and Akron, Ohio.
But in 2018, the United States recorded its lowest immigration level since the financial crisis as Trump moved to restrict both legal and illegal immigration and that could contribute to challenges facing Midwestern cities - where businesses struggle to fill jobs, grow the tax-payer base and support home sales.
Some officials point out that immigration can also have lasting benefits.
Marcos Carbajal's father came to the United States in the late 1960s from Mexico.
(SOUNDBITE) MARCOS CARBAJAL, CO-OWNER OF CARNITAS URUAPAN, SAYING:
"The first generation struggles to move up and traditionally the second generation has better access to education, a better job...better positioning,"
Now the 36-year-old Northwestern University business school graduate is helping build his dad's Mexican-style barbecue stand in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood into a citywide brand.
His family has kept the building on Chicago's W. 18th Street occupied and on the tax rolls since the 1970s, and with 38 employees, a second location now open, and possibly a third on the way, Carbajal said their footprint and economic impact, is expanding.
(SOUNDBITE) MARCOS CARBAJAL, CO-OWNER OF CARNITAS URUAPAN, SAYING:
"The food has not changed, the recipe has not changed but we are getting better at telling our story."
