“What happens to the towns is they age and shrink and die,” Tim Slack said.
Slack, a sociology professor at Louisiana State University, was describing what rural communities face when they lose immigrant residents. Aging populations, young people moving away and decades of economic decline have already left many small towns with fewer workers, students and taxpayers. Immigration has kept some of those places going.
From 2010 to 2020, the population of rural U.S. counties fell for the first time over a full decade, Slack said during an Aug. 14 American Community Media briefing. About two-thirds of rural counties lost residents. Between 2020 and 2024, nearly all positive net migration in rural counties outside metropolitan areas came from international migration.
Rural America is also more diverse than its national image suggests. About one in four rural residents and one in three rural children are people of color, Slack said. Indigenous people have the highest share of their population living in rural areas of any major racial or ethnic group.
Those demographic changes are visible in Storm Lake, Iowa. Mark Prosser, the city’s former police chief, watched immigration turn a shrinking, predominantly white community into one with a growing population and expanding businesses.
Much of the work is tied to large meatpacking plants. The change is also evident in the schools. Prosser said about 91 percent of students in Storm Lake’s public school system speak a language other than English at home. While other Iowa districts have consolidated as enrollment fell, communities with immigrant growth have built schools.
Now, he said, immigration enforcement is keeping people inside. Arrests do not need to come in a large raid to affect a small town. A few people detained by a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office can spread fear through the community.
“It’s causing people not to go to work,” Prosser said. “It’s causing people not to go to their doctor’s appointment, not to appear at court, not to go to church and not to go grocery shopping.”
Springfield, Ohio, faces the same problem on a larger scale. The city had fallen to about 54,000 residents after decades without population growth. The arrival of an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 Haitians brought new workers, businesses, churches and nonprofit organizations, said the Rev. Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church.
Many Haitian residents had permission to work under Temporary Protected Status. As those protections were withdrawn, thousands lost their jobs without qualifying for unemployment benefits. Ruby said residents have received letters ordering them to report to ICE, where some were fitted with ankle monitors. Agents had also begun making arrests in Springfield.
“There is a level of panic in town right now,” he said.
The effects extend beyond the people facing removal. Haitian workers supported local businesses and helped staff retirement homes. Many also sent money to relatives and orphans in Haiti. Springfield’s county government depends on sales tax, but residents who are afraid to leave home are no longer shopping. Ruby’s church usually had about 50 Haitian worshippers at Sunday services. On the Sunday before the briefing, almost none attended.
The city had not seen significant home construction in years. Ruby said about 3,000 new homes are now being built, in part because of population growth connected to Haitian arrivals. Removing those residents would leave employers without workers and the city without customers.
The crackdown has also produced a local response. Springfield Neighbors United has brought together about 400 residents who support Haitian families. Another group, G92, includes about 20 churches willing to provide sanctuary or assist congregations that do. Volunteers have delivered food, monitored ICE activity and organized public demonstrations.
In Iowa and nearby states, advocates are taking groceries to people who are afraid to shop, accompanying immigrants to court and preparing emergency packets for families in case of an arrest. Prosser said some public officials and law enforcement leaders who have supported immigrants are now reluctant to speak. They fear public attention could draw more enforcement to their communities.
Rachel Perić, executive director of Welcoming America, said the silence comes as towns are trying to attract residents and rebuild trust. Local leaders may disagree about federal immigration policy, she said, but they still have to keep schools open, fill jobs and maintain working relationships among neighbors.
Without new residents, Slack said, rural towns face a familiar list of losses: a smaller tax base, labor shortages and school closures. Rural communities also need working-age residents to care for an older population, particularly as hospitals and other health services remain under strain.
“If rural communities in this country are going to survive,” Slack said, “immigration has to be part of that equation.”
