As shown by the White House's recent, draconian family separation policy as well as its reticence towards UN sanctioned refugee resettlement programs, the US has no intention of stopping the crackdown on illegal immigrants and international asylum seekers.

One of the biggest justifications used for anti-immigrant policies has been that illegal immigrants or refugees will steal jobs from Americans.

However, is that really the case?

Examples from other wealthy, developed countries like Japan that also have strict immigration laws may suggest that an influx of job seekers may be beneficial, not detrimental, to a national labor market.

Last year, only about 941,000 births occurred in Japan, less than 1% of a population of over 127 million people. To make things worse, over 1.3 million died, hence decreasing the overall population of Japan by over 400,000. The average life expectancy in Japan for both males and females is well over 80, so not only will the Japanese workforce decrease as the population declines, more and more able-bodied Japanese will have to take care of the growing elderly demographic (about 1 in 5 Japanese people is over the age of 65).

For a nation with a multi-trillion dollar GDP and a massive industrial capacity, a shrinking labor market is the ultimate disaster. Scientists predict that, by 2050, there will only be a little over 40 million Japanese people that are the right age to work, a massive problem for a country that currently has one of the top five largest economies on Earth.

One of the main reasons behind Japan's population woes is not just its infinitesimal birth rate, less than 1.5 children per mother of child-bearing age, but also it's severe immigration policies. According to Japan's own census statistics, less than 2% of its population is composed of immigrants and just 3 asylum seekers were admitted last year.

Even though the Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, still subscribes to the irrational fear that immigrants only come for easy access to jobs and work permits, they may need to amend their fear of "abusive" work applications before it is too late for Japan's workforce to gain a substantial amount of any type of worker, but less so-called "abusive" ones.

The United States, another wealthy industrial country, is having a similar problem and is just as averse to finding a solution for it. The US birth rate is 1.82 children per woman of child-bearing age, higher than Japan but still below the 2.1 children mark needed to maintain population equilibrium. The US, particularly under President Trump's administration, has also exhibited significant anti-immigrant sentiment, even going so far as to impose travel bans to prevent immigrants from certain (mainly Muslim) countries from entering the US.

In addition to this, over 162,000 hispanic undocumented immigrants were detained at the US's Southern border. While a declining workforce and population has not been an issue for the US as it has been for Japan, it may very well be in the near future, as the US birthrate continues to drop and new refugees and undocumented immigrants are turned away at alarming speed.

Due to its lack of population growth, Japan has an extinction date (where there will be no people left in Japan), set at the year 3766. While the United States does not currently have such a date, it may very well gain one unless the number of people living in the US increases soon. Since raising a national birth rate is an extremely complex and multifaceted process, the most viable way to accomplish this is to accept more of the immigrants eager to gain access to our nation, even if they may be refugees or undocumented.