Thread: Illegal Immigration Slows

courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-immigants0812.artaug12,0,5346619.story

Courant.com
Illegal Immigration Slows
Fewer Attempts Made To Cross Border Into U.S.
By TRACI CARL
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld ... 6619.story
Associated Press

August 12, 2007

TECATE, Mexico

Mexican shelters, usually the last stop for northbound migrants, are filling with southbound deportees. Fewer migrants are crossing in the wind-swept deserts along an increasingly fortified border. Far to the north, fields are empty at harvest time as workplace raids become more common.

Mexicans are increasingly giving up on the American dream and staying home, and the federal crackdown on undocumented workers announced Friday should discourage even potential migrants from taking the risks as the United States seeks to purge itself of its illegal population.

U.S. border agents detained 55,545 illegal migrants jumping over border walls, walking through the desert and swimming across the Rio Grande River between October and June. That's down 38 percent for the entire border compared with the same period a year before.

U.S. and Mexican officials say that increased border security, including 6,000 National Guard troops, remote surveillance technology and drone planes, have thwarted smugglers who had succeeded for years at beating the system.

Migrants also say they feel that Americans are increasingly hostile toward immigrants.

"It's the discrimination," said George Guevara, 28, who was deported to Tijuana last month after living in the U.S. for 18 years. "It's making people step back. It's just too much of a risk. It's better to be out here."

Guevara, who speaks perfect English and has only distant memories of Mexico, was living at a Tijuana migrant shelter filled with deportees, many of whom are Mexican-born but find themselves in a country that is foreign to them.

The biggest drop in Border Patrol detentions - a 68 percent decrease - was in the remote, heat-seared desert surrounding Yuma, Ariz., once popular with smugglers. Border Patrol spokesman Jeremy Chappell credits the additional troops and tougher security.

"Where an alien before was able to sneak across, now he has the National Guard watching him," Chappell said.

The only area that has had an increase - 1.5 percent - is the San Diego sector, which runs along the California border and includes the harsh, roadless desert surrounding Tecate. The Border Patrol has responded with helicopters and increased intelligence from detained migrants.

Crossing there requires hiking up to 6 miles, scrambling over or under the border fence, then walking some more, usually in the dead of night. The region is difficult to patrol, making it one of the few places that migrants believe they can still get through.

That's why Romeo, 22,a Salvadoran who refused to give his last name for fear of reprisals, was in Tecate's town square after failing twice to sneak into El Paso, Texas.

"They tell me this is the best place to cross, but it isn't easy anywhere," Romeo said.

Deportations also are up for illegal immigrants who have lived in the States for years. Some are caught for minor infractions like a burned-out headlight. Others are rounded up in workplace raids that the Bush administration has vowed to intensify.

The new measures announced Friday will force employers to fire any workers who cannot prove that their Social Security numbers are legitimate.

U.S. employers are already complaining, especially those in agriculture, where most workers are believed to be working with false documents. On a recent visit to Mexico, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoirecq said that some crops are already rotting in the fields for lack of workers.

Many employers join President Bush in blaming Congress for stalling an accord that would allow more people to work legally.

"Pretty shortly, people are going to be knocking on people's doors saying, `Man, we're running out of workers,'" Bush said.

Originally Posted by zeezil

"Pretty shortly, people are going to be knocking on people's doors saying, `Man, we're running out of workers,'" Bush said.

Perhaps these same "knockers" should stop goofing around and get to work. There's no law that says a supervisor can't do some stooping in his own fields.

What a load of crap.