Thread: Signs show drop in number of illegal immigrants to U.S.

Signs show drop in number of illegal immigrants to U.S.
BY MARLA DICKERSON
Los Angeles Times

http://www.kansas.com/news/nation_world ... 65038.html
MEXICO CITY - Lorenzo Martinez, an illegal immigrant who has lived in Los Angeles for six years, has a message for his kin in Mexico's Hidalgo state: Stay put.

The steady construction work that had allowed him to send home as much as $1,000 a month in recent years had disappeared. The 36-year-old father of four said desperation was growing among the day laborers with whom he was competing for jobs.

"Better not to come," Martinez said of anyone thinking about crossing into the U.S. illegally. "The situation is really bad."

That message seems to be getting through. There are numerous signs of a slowdown in illegal immigration.

Martinez said anxiety also was running high among undocumented workers about stepped-up workplace raids, deportations and increasing demands by U.S. employers for proof that they were in the country legally.

• A recent survey by Mexican authorities shows that fewer Mexicans say they are planning to seek work outside the country. In the third quarter of 2007, about 47,000 said they'd be packing their bags. That's down nearly one-third from the same quarter a year earlier.

• U.S. border authorities arrested just under 877,000 illegal crossers in fiscal 2007, which ended in September, down 20 percent compared to the year before. A drop in apprehensions is often interpreted as a sign that fewer migrants are attempting the trip.

• Employment of foreign-born Hispanics increased at a slower pace in the first quarter of 2007 than during the same period in the previous three years, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The slowdown was particularly noticeable in the construction industry. Growth in employment of foreign-born Hispanics in that sector was 10.9 percent early this year, compared to an average first-quarter growth rate of 19.8 percent from 2004 to 2006.

• The growth in remittances sent to Mexico has dwindled to a trickle. Through October of this year, Mexicans living abroad sent $20.4 billion home to their families, a 1.3 percent increase over the same period in 2006, according to Mexico's central bank. Those sums were growing in excess of 20 percent annually just a few years ago.

What's behind the apparent decline?

Some say it's primarily the slump in U.S. construction, which has been a magnet for illegal immigrants over the last few years -- one in five Hispanic immigrants works in the building trades. Others say it's largely the result of stepped-up enforcement.

Proponents of tighter security say U.S. workplace dragnets and increased deportations have made big headlines in Latin America, deterring some would-be migrants. American authorities are installing hundreds of miles of fencing along the southern border. About 15,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents have been deployed to the region, 25 percent more than in 2006. By the end of next year, 3,000 more are slated to be in place.

"It's a combination of (more) personnel, technology and infrastructure," said Ramon Rivera, a spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection agency, of the falling arrest totals.

Immigration experts say tougher enforcement is one of several explanations. The border buildup has encouraged more illegal immigrants to employ professional smugglers, whose success rate is higher than that of individuals, said Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

He said tougher enforcement had also discouraged many illegal immigrants from returning to their homelands for occasional visits for fear of getting caught re-entering the U.S. Fewer people coming and going across the border means fewer apprehensions.

The fall in arrests also fits a familiar pattern, one that traditionally has more to do with the strength of the U.S. job market than with walls or guards.

"It's the economy, stupid," Cornelius said.

"When it's easy to get a job, they come. When it's hard to get a job, they don't," said demographer Jeffrey Passel, senior research associate at the Washington-based Pew

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

[b]Signs show drop in number of illegal immigrants to U.S.
BY MARLA DICKERSON
Los Angeles Times

GOOD!!! By the way, it's "aliens," not "immigrants."

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

Proponents of tighter security say U.S. workplace dragnets and increased deportations have made big headlines in Latin America, deterring some would-be migrants. American authorities are installing hundreds of miles of fencing along the southern border. About 15,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents have been deployed to the region, 25 percent more than in 2006. By the end of next year, 3,000 more are slated to be in place.


He said tougher enforcement had also discouraged many illegal immigrants from returning to their homelands for occasional visits for fear of getting caught re-entering the U.S. Fewer people coming and going across the border means fewer apprehensions.

More Proof that Enforcement Works!

With "friends' like the mex. government,,, who needs enemies???
We spend hundreds of BILLIONS of $$$$ ( & no that aint worthless pesos Jorge),,, and the mex government just sits back & watches mex citizens planning their ILLEGAL entries into USA,,, & mex gov. whining in the press about how mean we are to the mex citizens.
Oh,,, poor poor (cry) babies
Oh thats right, mex has oil - so we gotta be nice to them?
Hmmmmm, BEFORE THEY GET TOO COCKY --- wonder if they can spell I.R.A.Q.