Immigration traffic appears down in state
Study, testimony of businesses point to decline
Javier Manzano © The Rocky


July 30, 2007
Juan Marcos Rodriguez, of Aurora, waited for the next bus to the border in an otherwise empty lobby of Autobuses Americanos in downtown Denver.
The 46-year-old native of Chihuahua, Mexico, was on his way home - for good.

"It's getting too difficult to stay," said Rodriguez, a construction worker who came to the United States illegally in 2003. "It was fine when I got here. It was easy to get work. Nobody bothered you. Now, everyone is asking for documentation. I want to live a more tranquil life."

Rodriguez is hardly alone, say local business owners who cater to Hispanic immigrants. They say state laws aimed at curbing illegal immigration, along with several high-profile raids in Colorado by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials over the past year, have scared away their immigrant clientele.

How many immigrants may be leaving Colorado or passing through the state when they cross the border is unknown. But a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that since mid-2006 the number of immigrants either returning from Mexico or arriving in the United States for the first time has apparently tapered off.

"Migration flows, especially from Mexico, have been highly responsive in the past to levels of demand for new workers in the U.S. economy," the study, released May 30, noted.

"However, a wide variety of factors, ranging from political conditions in sending countries to enforcement efforts by U.S. immigration authorities, can also affect the pace of immigration.

"The Mexican-born population in the United States has continued to increase, but the rate of growth appears to have slowed in recent months."

Bus business down

Alfredo Castro doesn't need a study to tell him what he has already felt in his pocketbook.

He's the owner of Autobuses Los Paisanos, a bus company in downtown Denver. Like Autobuses Americanos, it specializes in trips to border cities and points farther south. Business has declined more than 30 percent over the last 12 months, he said.

"People don't like to travel anymore," said Castro, who has had his business for six years. "There are too many delays at the immigration checkpoints along the way. The raids. The new laws. The political climate is affecting us all."

The Pew study based its findings on a number of indicators, including receipts of funds wired to the Bank of Mexico by immigrant workers.

On this side of the border, Greenwood Village-based Western Union Co. reported this week its second-quarter drop in profits. It blamed the ongoing debate about U.S. immigration policy for a 10 percent decline in revenue in its consumer-to-consumer business.

State Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, said he was "cautiously encouraged" by news that illegal immigration may be down.

"I think it's more of a perception that Colorado is tough on illegals," he said. "We need to continue our efforts to toughen up our laws and keep up with other states, like Arizona and Georgia, that are working to pass strict legislation to curb illegal immigration."

Short of workers

The effects of immigration enforcement were first felt last fall when Weld County farmers complained that they were running short of workers. Earlier that year, the state legislature passed a package of bills to curb illegal immigration.

In southern Colorado, farmers contracted for prison inmates to work their fields because they feared the state's strict new immigration laws were keeping migrant laborers away.

Some employers were especially concerned about a law that went into effect Jan. 1 that requires employers to verify Social Security numbers and maintain proof that their workers are in the country legally.

Farmers and contractors believe that the political climate in Colorado and other Western states is keeping away immigrant workers - both legal and illegal.

For Richard Falcon, owner of a satellite dish company on South Federal Boulevard in Denver, fewer workers means fewer customers. He said business is down by more than 60 percent.

About 90 percent of his business is done with Hispanics, he said, some of them in the country illegally. Several of his customers from Greeley were either deported in the Dec. 12 raid of the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant that netted 261 workers, or have fled the state, he said.

"People are afraid to commit to long-term contracts or make big purchases such as cars or homes because they don't know how long they'll continue living in this country," Falcon said.

Many other companies that rely on a largely immigrant clientele are experiencing the same problems, he said.

"Stores, restaurants, Spanish-language radio stations - they're all feeling the effects of this whole immigration mess," he said.

After two years in business, Carlos Nevi, owner of Denver Mortgage Pros, is closing his doors permanently.

Nevi's clientele consisted largely of immigrants who obtained home loans with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number or ITIN. In 1996 the IRS began issuing the numbers to foreign nationals who were not eligible to obtain Social Security cards as a way to encourage compliance with U.S. tax laws.

"Since they started the marches, since they started the raids, since they began passing legislation that went after immigrants, I've lost business," he said. "People have stopped coming. I can't pay my bills anymore."

Report underscores decline

Though there are no hard and fast numbers about the effect of new laws and raids on the immigrant community, the Pew report underscores evidence that the number of Hispanic immigrants in Colorado is declining.

According to the Pew report, the number of foreign-born people coming to live in the U.S. surged at the end of the 1990s, peaked in 2000 and then dropped by more than a quarter following the 2001 recession. Mexicans accounted for roughly one-third of the annual flow throughout this period.

Migration then began to increase again in 2004 until mid-2006, when the trend suggests a slackening in growth.

In Colorado, the number of foreign-born from Latin America - the overwhelming majority from Mexico - surged from 205,691 in 2000 to 271,848 in 2005, according to U.S. Census estimates.

Colorado demographer Elizabeth Garner said it was too soon to tell whether census data for the state confirm what the Pew study suggests, or what business owners are experiencing.

"The international migration component has not shrunk, but the numbers we're playing with are a bit old," she said. "It will be interesting to see what additional data we receive by the end of this year."



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