Illegal Immigration from Mexico Slowing, Has Dramatically Dropped Because of America’s Plunging Economy
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 15, 2009
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
One small, flickering light in the darkness of America’s financial woes: illegal immigration has drastically dropped as a result of our plummeting economy.
I don’t feel a “hooray!” is appropriate, but hey, any faint light to brighten the darkness of our nation’s situation is hopeful. Now, if we can only get Washington to stop this open borders nonsense and secure the borders instead. Calling Joe Arpaio…
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UPDATE: Not sure what the catch here is (that’s the same sentiment expressed in the Hot Air post), but since it defies every other action from the White House in house, who knows? Maybe today marks the beginning of Washington and Obama seeing the folly of NOT cracking down on illegal immigration. Although, I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop… my mama didn’t raise no dummy…
Hot Air: Crackdown on criminal illegal aliens launched by … Barack Obama?
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Here’s a portion of the story from the New York Times:
New York Times | Mexican Data Say Migration to U.S. Has Plummeted
By Julia Preston
May 15, 2009MEXICALI, Mexico — Census data from the Mexican government indicate an extraordinary decline in the number of Mexican immigrants going to the United States.
The recently released data show that about 226,000 fewer people emigrated from Mexico to other countries during the year that ended in August 2008 than during the previous year, a decline of 25 percent. All but a very small fraction of emigration, both legal and illegal, from Mexico is to the United States.
Because of surging immigration, the Mexican-born population in the United States has grown steeply year after year since the early 1990s, dipping briefly only after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, census data in both countries show.
Mexican and American researchers say that the current decline, which has also been manifested in a decrease in arrests along the border, is largely a result of Mexicans’ deciding to delay illegal crossings because of the lack of jobs in the ailing American economy.
The trend emerged clearly with the onset of the recession and, demographers say, provides new evidence that illegal immigrants from Mexico, by far the biggest source of unauthorized migration to the United States, are drawn by jobs and respond to a sinking labor market by staying away.
“If jobs are available, people come,” said Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. “If jobs are not available, people don’t come.”
The net outflow of migrants from Mexico — those who left minus those who returned — fell by about half in the year that ended in August 2008 from the preceding year. The figures are based on detailed household interviews conducted quarterly by the census agency in Mexico, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
Along the border, the signs of the drop-off are subtle but ubiquitous. Only two beds are filled in a shelter here that houses migrants hoping to sneak into the United States. On the American side, near Calexico, Calif., Border Patrol vans return empty to their base after agents comb the desert for illegal crossers.
In recent weeks, the spread of swine flu in Mexico and the government’s response of shutting down schools and canceling public gatherings brought migration here and elsewhere nearly to a halt. But demographers expect the deep flu-related decline to be temporary.
With so many Mexicans remaining in their home villages, the population of illegal immigrants in the United States stopped growing and might have slightly decreased in the last year, an abrupt shift after a decade of yearly influxes, research by demographers in the United States shows. Mexicans account for 32 percent of immigrants in the United States, and more than half of them lack legal status, the Pew center has reported.
Still, at least 11 million illegal immigrants remain in the United States, the demographers say. Despite collapsing job markets in construction and other low-wage work, there has been no exodus among Mexicans living in the United States, the Mexican census figures show. About the same number of migrants — 450,000 — returned to Mexico in 2008 as in 2007.
Related reading:
Jim Blazsik: Video – Illegal Aliens! (Featuring the Jimenez Brothers) – Steven Crowder
Vets On The Watch: The Quickest Way To Balance Your State Budget: STOP FUNDING ILLEGAL ALIENS
Conservative Libertarian Outpost: Sheriff Joe Arpaio for Homeland Security Chief!
Michelle Malkin: Open-borders alert: White House preparing to gut E-Verify and Another open-borders nightmare and Obama Census Plan: No Illegal Alien Left Behind and Janet Napolitano screws up again and Pssst, Janet: Bomb threat against police for detaining illegal alien criminals and Obama’s illegal alien auntie: The rest of the story; Update: Open-borders lobby demands enforcement freeze and 49ers do the job San Francisco Democrats won’t do and A pig-flying moment in Washington state
Brian Jennings, Big Hollywood: Muzzling CNN’s Lou Dobbs
Patterico’s Pontifications: Deport the Criminals First (but Which Criminals?)
Debbie Schlussel: Immigration Boondoggle: Where’s My Kosher Meat? …Or How ICE Agents Played Ed McMahon in $10 Million Julie Myers Alien Clearinghouse Sweepstakes
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Shame on Phoenix Mayor Gordon – Accuses Sheriff Arpaio & County Police of Being Racists for Enforcing Illegal Immigration Laws | Videos and Frugal Sheriff: Joe Arpaio Targeted by Democrat Feds for Arresting Illegal Aliens in AZ
Say NO to Illegal Immigration: Illegal Immigration Declines as the Economy Does
Peace and Freedom Global Future: How’s Obama Doing? Just Ask America’s Closest Allies
Random-American: Illegal immigrant charged with trying to kill police officer
Penraker: Obama Breaks another One
IdentityZine: Solve the Identity Theft Problem: Reform Immigration
Unequal Time: DHS chief Napolitano says border jumping “not a crime” and Stop blaming Bush for DHS hit job
The American Spectator: Minutemen Founder to Challenge McCain
Pamela Gellar, Atlas Shrugs: Shocking New Report! Obama’s Real Terrorists: Targeting Patriots and the Right
Corruption Chronicles, Judicial Watch: Illegal Aliens Spread Swine Flu In U.S.
Moonage Political Webdream: Janet Napolitano and the law – immigration
Hot Air: Shouldn’t a DHS Secretary know that illegal immigration is a crime?
This Ain’t Hell, But You Can See It From Here: Want to know where Napolitano got the fuzzy law on immigration?
Knee Deep in the Hooah: I’m not buying it… are you?
Scott’s Slant on Politics: If Man Cannot Govern Himself, How Can He Govern Others?
Morning Coffee: Illegal Immigration and civil rights (Jan. 19, 2007)
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