Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that politicians at local, state and federal levels must be “honest” about the role that popular immigrants play in increasing housing costs for Americans.
Aside from inflation, zoning laws and energy costs, Vance said importing millions of immigrants from around the world each year plays a key role in creating even more affordable prices for workers and middle-class Americans.
“One of the driving forces for the increased demand for housing is that there are many people who have come to the country illegally over the past four years, something that needs to be addressed if they want to significantly reduce housing costs.”
Vance said:
To allow 20 million people to compete with American citizens for the cost of a home, there are huge and frankly completely preventable spikes in housing demand. And that's, of course, what we saw. It's been a bit difficult to build a house in this country over the past four years, but unfortunately it has been too easy to compete with American citizens for the precious homes we have in our country. [Emphasis added]
Well, I'll say this, it's not actually just an American problem either. When you go to Canada, due to their laws and regulations, they have seen a significant increase in the number of people who have come to their country. You're going to the UK. You travel around the world and see a very consistent relationship between a huge increase in immigration and a large increase in home prices. We have to be honest about it.
[Emphasis added]
In fact, as a result of mass immigration, housing costs for Canadians became so out of control last year, Canada's Justin Trudeau announced that they would cut immigration levels to reduce such burdens on his people.
At one point, a woman in the audience screamed at Vance as he spoke. He replied, “I think one of our lovely representatives here actually wants to continue to flood our nation with illegal immigrants and countries that can't create your community.”
Vance said he is often the lowest income earners, ravaged by the unidentified level of immigration to the US.
“We know from economists that blue-collar people are often those who face the biggest cuts in wages and services when there are communities overwhelmed by illegal immigration,” Vance said.
A study from the Center for Immigration Research shows that a 5% increase in the immigration share of the Metro region's population is associated with a 12% increase in rent for the average American.
“I think one of the things that brings us together in this room is to give the blue-collar people in the United States another shot of the American Dream,” Vance said.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him to jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
