Americans are struggling with rising costs of living, and Iowa families feel it every month when the rent is due or they look at home prices. While Democrats claim they can help working families, their policies are actually the ones to blame.
Recent findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas show that unauthorized immigration accounted for approximately 30 percent of home price growth and 20 percent of rent growth in typical U.S. metro areas between 2021 and 2024. In markets where housing supply is already tight, the added demand from millions of new arrivals pushed prices higher without a matching increase in construction.
As someone who builds workforce housing in rural Iowa to give local families affordable places to live, I saw the reality firsthand: people were trafficked across our southern border far faster than we could build. During the Biden-Harris years, an estimated eight percent of Nicaragua, seven percent of Guatemala, and five percent of Honduras entered the United States illegally, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data.
This scale of unlawful entry was no accident; it was the foreseeable result of deliberate policies designed to fundamentally change our country while hollowing out the middle class. When enforcement collapsed and catch-and-release became the norm, communities faced strained services, higher costs, and a reduced quality of life for working families because we were importing entire countries.
Fortunately, common sense returned to the White House in early 2025. National home prices recently experienced their sharpest annual decline in at least nine years because we are finally deporting criminals and putting our citizens first.
As November approaches, Democrats are campaigning on fixing the cost-of-living crisis they created. We know better than that —their policies would only undo the progress we’ve made securing our borders and protecting affordability for American families.
My radical opponent, Lindsay James, refuses to acknowledge the Biden Border Crisis and has even voted for taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants. This approach weakens our communities, erodes our culture, and pushes the American Dream further out of reach for hardworking Americans.
Republicans fight unapologetically to secure our borders, deport criminal illegal immigrants, and protect affordability for American families. It’s a real contrast, and one we should be talking about every single day.
Joe Mitchell is the Republican nominee for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
