Speaker 1: And immigration is one of the most important issues for
Speaker 1: voters in the upcoming presidential election, and San Antonio, Texas
Speaker 1: is at the forefront of the debate, often acting as
Speaker 1: a migration hub where authorities send people en route to
Speaker 1: their final destination. Joining us now for more on that
Speaker 1: from the Bloomberg City Lab Summit in Mexico City is
Speaker 1: the Mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nuremberg. Mister Mayor, great
Speaker 1: to have some time with you. I was looking at
Speaker 1: some charts about the flow of migrants over the Southwest
Speaker 1: border from the CBP, and indeed we've seen a spike
Speaker 1: to the highest levels of immigration across that area in
Speaker 1: American history, at least in the history of the United
Speaker 1: States of America. How have you dealt with that in
Speaker 1: San Antonio? Have the people of San Antonio dealt with
Speaker 1: that influx of immigration?
Speaker 2: Sure? Well, good morning, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: I think the first thing I would say is contextualize this.
Speaker 3: This is not unique to the US southern border. This
Speaker 3: is happening all across the world. More displaced people in
Speaker 3: this period of time one hundred and fourteen million people worldwide,
Speaker 3: more since World War Two. So what's happening in the
Speaker 3: southern border is not unique. What is unique, however, is
Speaker 3: the political and legislative paralysis within our political system in
Speaker 3: the United States. How we have handled that at the
Speaker 3: local level, since we don't deal with solutions to immigration policy,
Speaker 3: is that we've had cooperation from the Biden and Harris
Speaker 3: administration provide resources so.
Speaker 2: That we can do two things.
Speaker 3: We can make sure that we continue to uphold our
Speaker 3: values as a nation, but we also deal with safety
Speaker 3: and safety and resources in a way that allows people
Speaker 3: to move on to their next destination while protecting public safety.
Speaker 3: It has been a successful effort, and since that period
Speaker 3: of time when President Biden issued his executive orders, we've
Speaker 3: seen about a ninety percent decrease in traffic through our
Speaker 3: Migrant Resource Center. So it works when Congress puts solutions together.
Speaker 3: If they yield to the politics of Donald Trump and
Speaker 3: we're left with no solutions, it's incumbent upon presidential leadership,
Speaker 3: and that's exactly what we've seen with President Biden.
Speaker 1: Mister Mayer, I imagine you have to uphold the law,
Speaker 1: do you then when you find someone in this country illegally,
Speaker 1: work with the government to send that person back to
Speaker 1: his or her home country, or do you move that
Speaker 1: person along in the system somehow, how do you sort
Speaker 1: of stop the breaking of the law in that situation.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
Speaker 3: We cooperate with local law enforcement with federal authorities, and
Speaker 3: so folks who are in our city have been vetted
Speaker 3: and have been given asylum. Hearing dates some cases years
Speaker 3: from now, which is part of the problem when we
Speaker 3: don't have legislative solutions that were clearly laid out, and
Speaker 3: a bipart is in border bill that Trump unilaterally killed
Speaker 3: by calling his favorite senators.
Speaker 2: So there are solutions to this at the local level.
Speaker 3: However, we work with federal authorities to make sure that
Speaker 3: we have the resources to treat people with compassion, but
Speaker 3: also protect public safety and maintain public order.
Speaker 4: And I want to bring the labor market into this conversation.
Speaker 4: We know, of course, at a federal level that it's
Speaker 4: still very strong. But there is an interesting story from
Speaker 4: Texas Monthly recently which actually found that Texas has eighty
Speaker 4: workers for every hundred open jobs, and that construction jobs
Speaker 4: in particular have a high degree of job openings right now.
Speaker 4: And I'm curious, I mean, how has immigration impacted that.
Speaker 4: Have you been able to fill some of those job
Speaker 4: openings with migrants.
Speaker 3: Well, San Antonio is a international city. We are a
Speaker 3: city that has been multicultural and has roughly a fifteen
Speaker 3: percent foreign born population. So you know, immigrants are part
Speaker 3: of our labor force regardless of the career field, in
Speaker 3: high skill positions and all kinds of markets. So, of course,
Speaker 3: immigrants are part of our construction workforce as well, same
Speaker 3: as residents of San Antonio. And we know in this
Speaker 3: period of time when there's an extensive amount of capital investment,
Speaker 3: a lot of construction going on, there is a need
Speaker 3: for construction workers, there is need for manufacturing workers. And
Speaker 3: we put a lot of our own resources, including resources
Speaker 3: from Vice President Harrison, President Biden, to help us continue
Speaker 3: to build the skills in our workforce to make sure
Speaker 3: that we can fill those jobs.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm curious, I mean, how do you sort of
Speaker 4: building on what Matt was asking about following the law here,
Speaker 4: how do you ensure that there's going to be fair wages,
Speaker 4: safe working conditions when workers are both documented and undocumented.
Speaker 3: Well, every single job is obviously regulated, and unfortunately we
Speaker 3: can't change Texas law. Unfortunately hasn't changed with regard to
Speaker 3: minimum wage in twenty some odd years. But you know,
Speaker 3: we make sure that we work with all industries to
Speaker 3: ensure that folks are you know, gainful employed, but are
Speaker 3: also that employers are treating their employees correctly and also
Speaker 3: you know they're properly working with all of the laws
Speaker 3: and regulations in the area.
Speaker 1: I want to ask about housing prices. I was looking
Speaker 1: at the FREDDIEMAC House price index for San Antonio, and indeed,
Speaker 1: you see a spike in home prices right as soon
Speaker 1: as you see a spike in immigration at the start
Speaker 1: of the Biden administration. The two seem very correlated. How
Speaker 1: are you doing it keeping housing affordable for your residence?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not going to slip into that kind of
Speaker 3: correlation equals causation. The idea that migration has called the
Speaker 3: cause the spike and housing price is absolutely absurd. What
Speaker 3: we've seen is a tightening of the supply chains. We've
Speaker 3: seen a tightening of the labor markets. This is worldwide phenomenon.
Speaker 3: But we also know that housing prices are going up
Speaker 3: because people are coming to our city from California, from Illinois,
Speaker 3: from Texas itself. We're a great city to live in
Speaker 3: and that's made us very desirable. We've had a strategic
Speaker 3: housing implementation plan in place that we've been implementing to
Speaker 3: make sure that the housing market is stable and it's healthy.
Speaker 3: Of course, housing costs have gone up roughly twenty five
Speaker 3: percent over the last four or five years, but relative
Speaker 3: to some of our peer cities, we're doing a good
Speaker 3: job and making sure that there's a healthy supply to
Speaker 3: the demand in housing, and that comes in all forms
Speaker 3: and types. We know we need more rental housing for
Speaker 3: young professionals and students, but we also need home ownership
Speaker 3: options for people who are moving into their professional prime
Speaker 3: careers and also retiring in our city. But we have
Speaker 3: a good, healthy housing market in San Antonio. Of course,
Speaker 3: we're in the midst of a housing crisis worldwide. We're
Speaker 3: doing what we can to make sure it continues to
Speaker 3: be sustainable and healthy.
Speaker 1: All right, mister Mayor, thanks very much for your time.
Speaker 1: Really appreciated. Mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nuremberg.
Speaker 2: There