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Illegal immigration falls as economy sags
Survey - Tougher enforcement and key jobs drying up feed a nationwide decline
Friday, October 03, 2008
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES
The Oregonian Staff

The flow of immigrants entering the country illegally has declined, reversing a more than 15-year trend, and the dismal economy is battering immigrants who aren't U.S. citizens harder than other groups, according to two reports released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

As of March, 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the United States, a decline of 500,000 from the center's estimate a year ago, according to the report by the Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan research organization. For the first time in 10 years, fewer undocumented immigrants are coming to the U.S. than legal immigrants.

"This was a population that has been growing rapidly," said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer for the Pew Hispanic Center. "That growth has come to a halt in 2008."

Pew researchers say several factors probably led to the slowdown: heightened immigration enforcement, tighter border control and the sagging economy.

The report is the most detailed to date on the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States, and it coincided with a release showing the economic downturn, which began when the housing bubble burst in 2006, has taken the biggest toll on noncitizen immigrants -- particularly those who live here illegally.

Deep income decline

The median annual income of noncitizen immigrant households fell 7.3 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the report, while the median annual income of all U.S. households rose 1.3 percent. Undocumented immigrants bore the brunt of this income loss.

A majority -- 56 percent -- of noncitizen households are Latino and nearly half are headed by an undocumented immigrant. Undocumented immigrants tend to be less educated and with fewer skills. This makes them more vulnerable to economic fluctuations, said Ted Donlan, a professor in the Portland State University School of Social Work who studies immigration and policy.

"They don't have as many options," Donlan said. "Most work in service industries and especially construction and housing because it is the easiest place to get work when they don't have papers."

In Oregon, as elsewhere, the construction jobs have dried up along with the housing market and competition for jobs has grown. Nurseries, which employ large numbers of immigrants in Oregon, have been laying off workers

While no state-by-state data were available, Sabino Sardineta, director of Centro Cultural in Cornelius, said Latino immigrants in Oregon have been hit by a double whammy: a foundering economy and new rules to keep undocumented people from getting driver's licenses.

"The impact is worse than ever before," Sardineta said. "I have learned of many, many people that have lost their jobs because they have not been able to drive or because they don't have identification."

Big worries

Yolanda Valenzuela just lost her job working for a nonprofit that helps low-income families. She has an engineering degree and hopes to find work teaching, but she's still afraid.

"When I arrived in Cornelius, it was a boom," she said. "During these years, it's less and less. I am worried because the economy in this country is a very bad situation and I think I probably cannot find a job as soon as I want."

Across the nation, pessimism is running high -- 50 percent of all Latinos say the situation is worse in this country for Latinos than it was a year ago, according to Pew survey released in September. Among Latinos who are immigrants -- documented and undocumented -- that number rises to 63 percent.

Large-scale immigration raids, including one at the Portland Del Monte plant last year, have instilled fear and make employment harder to find. Deportations in Oregon and Washington have spiked nearly 40 percent from a year ago.

Some immigrants, Sardineta said, are giving up and returning home. Tougher border enforcement is also making it more dangerous, and often too expensive, for families who want to sneak in, Donlan says.

Passel of the Pew Center cautions against using the data to predict future trends. If the economy improves, immigration numbers could fluctuate. And regardless, he said, the U.S. Latino population will keep growing. Latinos continue to migrate legally to the U.S., and growth will also come from the people who are already here.

Nikole Hannah-Jones: 503-221-4316; nhannahjones@news.oregonian.com

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