Immigration has tripled in major US counties, even as many of them have lost their population

For others, the declines have slowed somewhat.

Los Angeles County lost 90,000 residents in 2022, down from 180,000 in 2021. Brooklyn’s population fell by 47,000, after dropping 82,000 in 2021.

Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, gained 12,000 residents after losing 7,000 the previous year.

Many newcomers were drawn to larger cities with more liberal immigration laws and long-standing immigrant enclaves.

Theodore Moore, vice president of the New York Immigration Coalition, greeted asylum seekers at the Port Authority Bus Terminal last summer after they were ferried north by Governor Greg Abbott from the Texas. Mr Moore’s organization estimates that 50,000 migrants arrived in the New York metropolitan area last year, from countries including Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti and Cameroon, largely seeking asylum . The coalition estimates that another 20,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to New York.

Historically, immigration has been central to the growth of the nation’s major cities, which have long experienced outflows of residents each year.

These more recent immigrants are less likely to have family ties in the New York area and struggle to find affordable housing and obtain work authorization, Moore said. As a result, many are moonlighting, as farm laborers, construction workers or street vendors, he noted, whether in the city or in rural parts of the state. And many are living in homeless shelters, which are at capacity. Mayor Eric Adams decided to convert hotels, office buildings and other structures into temporary housing.