Could immigration be turning the Golden State red?

The media has been reporting that illegal border crossings have dropped since President Joe Biden implemented some harsher immigration policies. But is that the case? In Texas it is – but those results could be due more to the state’s own enforcement than anything the federal government has done. In California, though, the opposite seems to be true. There have been more than 525,000 migrants in fiscal year 2024, according to data provided by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). And that does not include the gotaways – those who crossed undetected.

Migrants Still Pouring Into California – But Why?

In July, CBS News reported a three-year low of illegal crossings into the nation. They gave credit to Biden for tougher asylum rules and to the Mexican government for its help. Another factor was the weather. Immigration typically slows quite a bit during the hot summer months when high temperatures make travel even more dangerous. When the president took office in January 2021, there were a little more than 75,000 migrant apprehensions. In June this year, there were approximately 84,000.

While California has always been a hub for illegal crossings, this year it became the hottest spot in the nation with more than a half million known illegal crossings. Much of that has to do with stricter policies in Texas. Migrants have been avoiding the area and rerouting to cross through the Golden State.

California is divided into two sectors: San Diego and El Centro. San Diego is the larger of the two, and had at least 324,260 apprehensions in FY 2024, a 40% increase from the 230,941 of 2023. Border agents in the El Centro Sector apprehended 17,484 illegal migrants this year. El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino said he was worried about the unaccompanied children that need to be rescued from smugglers. “These criminals are not related to the children they smuggle,” he explained. “These traffickers go to extreme lengths to smuggle these children – giving them sleep aids to keep them quiet.”

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the current immigration policies “caused a major crisis in California and America.” He added that “California is an open territory for the cartel to do whatever it wants.” Boudreaux also said he, along with many other of the state’s sheriffs, doesn’t support Kamala Harris for president.

The Golden State wasn’t always blue, especially when it came to immigration. In the 1990s, activists would gather at the border at night, park their cars, and shine their headlights toward Mexico to protect against illegal immigration, The Center Square explained. Republican Governor Pete Wilson was in office at the time. In 1994, Wilson was running for re-election and backed a black-and-white ad that showed footage of migrants dashing between vehicles at a border checkpoint while a narrator said, “They keep coming.”

Voters in the ‘90s believed in stricter border policies and passed Proposition 187, which prohibited illegal migrants from receiving some state services. They also re-elected Mr. Wilson to a second term. Thirty years later, California has seen a lot of change. Political experts claim that the 1994 campaign year was a big factor in why Latino voters moved away from the Republican Party. The Golden State has since declared itself a sanctuary state and has offered health care to the undocumented. A complete reversal of the 1990s policies.

But once again, the tides may be changing. The heavy influx of migrants has had a huge impact in California with everything from the cost of supporting them to population and jobs. Could the die-hard blue state be shifting a bit to the red?