That is what we proponents of attrition have been saying for years. (For some of my meanderings on attrition, see here and here.) More evidence today from, of all places, the Wall Street Journal:

During a decade in the U.S., Mexican immigrant Linex Rivera gave birth to three daughters, whose American citizenship offered her hope of staying in the land of opportunity. But with job prospects drying up for her husband, Ms. Rivera last week joined a phalanx of compatriots at the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles inquiring about obtaining Mexican citizenship for their children. [ACM note: the story later gets to Ms. Rivera's husband, Felipe Perez: Mr. Perez, who works as a waiter for a Los Angeles company that caters events for corporations and universities, says he once worked six days a week. Since November, "I've only been working twice or three times a week," he says. "Our savings are shrinking fast."]... After a historic immigration wave, many Mexicans and other Latin Americans are preparing to return to their homelands amid the deepening recession here. Mexicans who reside in the U.S. sought Mexican citizenship for their U.S.-born children in record numbers last year.

The WSJ report, here, goes on to describe how the recession is doing what U.S. immigration enforcement has declined to do: It is addressing the incentives and wherewithal of employers to hire immigrant (including illegal immigrant) labor. Immigrant unemployment numbers are way up, the number of people caught trying to enter illegally is significantly down, and the number of Mexicans seeking Mexican citizenship for their children is increasing steeply.

We don't need, and we have never needed, comprehensive reform—which would be the illegal-immigration version of the "stimulus" bill: guaranteed to make the problem worse, and probably much worse. It's too bad this is an experiment forced by economic circumstances rather than a commitment to sensible law-enforcement. But whatever the reason, the results are telling.


02/13 07:06 AM


http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... k3YTBiYmE=