The national immigration debate often centers on the southern border, deportations and politics in Washington. But beyond the border, another story is unfolding in communities that have increasingly depended on newcomers to fill jobs, enroll children in schools and offset aging and declining populations.
The national immigration debate often centers on the southern border, deportations and politics in Washington. But beyond the border, another story is unfolding in communities that have increasingly depended on newcomers to fill jobs, enroll children in schools and offset aging and declining populations.
That story carries particular significance in Texas.
During an Aug. 14 American Community Media briefing examining immigration and rural America, researchers and community leaders warned that a sharp slowdown in immigration could have consequences extending well beyond immigrant households.
Tim Slack, a professor of sociology at Louisiana State University, described immigration as a “population lifeline” for many rural communities. Rural counties collectively lost population from 2010 to 2020, he said, as aging and the departure of younger residents contributed to demographic decline.
Migration helped reverse that trend after 2020. Federal data show deaths have exceeded births in rural areas since 2017, making people moving into those communities increasingly important to population growth.
Now, international migration is slowing sharply.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates net international migration nationwide fell from 2.7 million in 2024 to 1.3 million in 2025. Texas recorded 167,475 net international migrants in 2025, the second-highest total among states, although its number also declined from the previous year. Harris County remained among the counties with the nation’s largest international migration totals.
For smaller communities, Slack said the consequences can extend from the workplace to the classroom.
When younger residents leave and establish families elsewhere, communities lose workers and future population growth. Without new residents arriving, the result can be shrinking tax bases, labor shortages and school closures.
Asked what could happen if substantial numbers of immigrants were no longer present in those communities, Slack was blunt: “What happens to the towns is they age and shrink and die.”
His warning was not a prediction for every rural community. Population trends vary widely, and domestic migration also contributes substantially to rural growth. But international migration has become especially important in some rural areas. Slack said that between 2020 and 2024, nearly all positive net migration in rural counties not adjacent to metropolitan areas came from international migration.
The effects also reach health care.
Slack said aging rural populations need working-age residents to provide health and other essential services. The Rev. Carl Ruby, who works closely with Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian community, said immigrants there had filled jobs in retirement homes that employers struggled to staff.
Immigration is also changing what rural America looks like.
Slack said about one in four rural residents is nonwhite, while roughly one in three rural children is nonwhite. Black and Hispanic residents make up significant shares of that population.
For Texas, where immigration continues to contribute to population and workforce growth, the debate extends beyond who enters or leaves the country.
It also raises a more local question: What happens to the communities that have come to depend on them?
