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Like many large cities, Baltimore’s unemployment rate shot up in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008, peaking at 12% in 2010. The 2010 federal census showed a population loss of about 5% since 2000, continuing a trend that started in the 1960s.
Fact 1: In order to counter that loss, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake declared Baltimore a “sanctuary city“ for illegal immigrants in 2012, ordering police and social service agencies not to ask anyone about immigration status. Her stated goal was to attract 10,000 new families to revitalize the city’s abandoned neighborhoods and spur economic activity.
This may have been a good idea if Baltimore had an abundance of jobs. In 2012, Baltimore’s unemployment rate was still hovering around 11%, with the black unemployment rate around 20%. Illegal immigrants generally do not take jobs away from lawyers, accountants, and bankers. They fill lower-skilled positions and work off the books, usually at a much lower cost to an employer than a legal worker.
Another reason to raise the population, unstated by Rawlings-Blake, was to increase the amount of federal aid money flowing into the city. And flow it has. Fact 2: Baltimore has received about $1.8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (commonly know as the “Stimulus” act) since 2009.
