With illegal immigration in the news for almost four years, and a presidential election approaching, viewing this situation from an economic lens seems appropriate.

According to Customs and Border Patrol Protection, encounters were 10,617,065 since Inauguration Day.

More than 10 million were admitted. This doesn’t include what CBPP calls “got aways” as they intentionally avoid an encounter. This number is unknown but is estimated to exceed 2 million.

The magnitudes are generally acknowledged as substantially larger than the 2016-20 period. How large is large and what difference does it make?

Consider that, according to Census Bureau data, the U.S. population was 331,449,281 at year-end 2020.

The U.S. population grew to an estimated 336,662,854 as of June 30. That represents a 1.6% increase over about four years or about 0.4% per year. This growth is smaller than historical comparisons and likely reflects an aging population and declining family size choices.

By subtraction, the population increase amounted to 5,213,730. How large is illegal immigration? It was roughly twice the natural population growth of the U.S. This influx clearly strains our infrastructure as evidenced by ubiquitous news reports.

The influx has significant demographic and economic consequences as well.

We generally know that illegal immigrants are at the lower end of the educational achievement scale and command relatively low wages.

If medical professionals, architects, engineers, schoolteachers and college faculty dominated the influx, we would have heard about it by now. This description is not intended to be derogatory, but simply to better describe the overwhelming majority of the illegal immigrants.

Eventually, most of these illegal immigrants will seek gainful employment. What impact should we expect from that assimilation?

To answer that question, we look to U.S. Census data.

Poverty is roughly defined as the incomes of the lowest 20%. 20% of the current population amounts to 65,900,000 individuals. The influx of 10,000,000+ illegal aliens adds roughly 15% to the group — most competing for the same low-wage jobs.

This large increase in supply compares to the 1.6% increase in U.S. population. Since wages rarely fall, expect to see a large relative increase in unemployment among low-wage workers.

To the extent that illegal immigrants do not find gainful employment, they will add significantly to the programs designed to assist low-income wage earners.

The addition of 10 million illegal immigrants to this low wage group will increase competition for new jobs for some time into the future. As a result, wage growth of this wage group will lag what it otherwise would have been.

Ironically, these expectations stand in stark contrast to the nation’s goals. As citizens, we expect an opportunity to achieve The American Dream. A major part of that dream is climbing the economic ladder.

Large illegal immigration holds down wages of the group we want to assist and further increases the cost of our entitlement programs.

To add further to the irony, about 34% of those in poverty are people of color and therefore are disproportionately disadvantaged by the influx.

Enough is enough.