Illegal immigration to U.S. down almost 67% since 2000, report says

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

The number of illegal immigrants entering the United States has plunged by almost two-thirds in the past decade, a dramatic shift after years of growth in the population, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Between 2000 and 2005, an average of 850,000 people a year entered the United States without authorization, according to the report released Wednesday. As the economy plunged into recession between 2007 and 2009, that number fell to 300,000.

The sharp drop-off has contributed to an 8 percent decrease in the estimated number of illegal immigrants living in the United States, from a peak of 12 million in 2007 to 11.1 million in 2009, the report said. Of the 11.1 million, 8.9 million came from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Virginia, Florida and Nevada were among the states with steepest declines in their populations of illegal immigrants.

The new figures come amid a heated national debate over efforts by Arizona and other jurisdictions to identify people who are here illegally and push to have them deported.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090102961.html

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Well, I guess that the racist Freepteabaggers in America are starting to pop out the beer and are going to hold flag-waving block parties over this. Further in the article other factors include: lack of available jobs and increase in law enforcement. Under the Obama administration, deportations have increased, and more funding has gone to border patrol between US/Mexico.

[leveymg]

1. There's an immigration EMERGENCY - haven't you been watching Focks News?

They stole my job, my wife, and my false teeth. Time to suspend the Constitution!

[Rozlee]

2. You evidently don't listen to country western music. They stole your hound dog, too.

:cry:

[apnu]

3. Hey play the song backwards and you can get all that back... (nt)

[sellitman]

4. Illegal immigrants are the new Jews

Historically Jews were blamed for all the worlds ills. The were the scapegoat of choice. Now that life in this country is facing hardships the Right need a scapegoat. That scapegoat is illegal citizens.

One day history will be actually studied and people will learn from it. Until then history will repeat itself.

[BonnieJW]

5. And Muslims. Don't forget the Muslims.

[bherrera]

9. Interesting fact, how the administration of Bush II increased #s

This is a very interesting fact some do not observe: the number of illegal aliens increased during the Bush administration, until the backlash began to influence his performance. I suspect Mr Bush felt it was good to allow illegal immigrants into the USA, because they could be exploited as cheap labour. Thus the status quo was very useful to him and his rich supporters.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Until lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

African proverb.

[Posteritatis]

14. And now I need to dig out those albums again... (nt)

[Lightning Count]

6. Good. Nothing wrong with this trend. nt.

[Indianademocrat91]

7. Geeze I guess Bush did have a solid plan of getting rid of illegals

Fuck up our economy to the point where its not worth it to come here for jobs / there are no jobs to take!

He really outsmarted/fucked us all over on his BRILLIANT plan.. :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

10. Spot on. n/t

[KillCapitalism]

15. With what NAFTA has done, I agree.

Why risk coming here when you have virtually no prospect for work?

It's probably easier to find a job in Mexico with the number of jobs we have sent to them. You might only make $1.50 an hour instead of $7.25, but any job is better than no job.

[KamaAina]

8. Throughout American history, nativist frenzy appears AFTER the wave of immigration has peaked

time and time again. :eyes:

[yurbud]

12. if the mainstream media was doing their job, they'd be asking every Republican and talk radio

host if this means they will shift their focus to some other scapegoat.

[JBoy]

13. Funny how facts have a progressive, anti-racist bias.

[xchrom]

16. recommend

[robcon]

17. That's what a recession/no jobs will do

n/t

[pampango]

18. Coupled with record deportations and sanctions against illegal employers, it's getting hard for tea

baggers to keep up the "government isn't doing anything" mantra along with "secure the borders" used to stop any discussion of comprehensive reform.

[Yavin4]

19. Immigration and the Housing Bubble Are Connected

That's why the whole debate over illegal immigration is so dishonest.

[Igel]

20. Link to report.

http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/126.pdf

It's not clear how they estimated the actual flow of migrants. It looks like they simply estimated the populations for 2009 (as NPR put it this morning, "from the 2009 Census"), compared those numbers with 2007 estimates, and went with the summary figures.

In other words, I have a population of 15 in 2007, of 17 in 2009, the net "inflow" was 1/year. Of course, in any given year 10 of those 15 might leave, so the total number of people going in and out is 17, but since 10 left and 12 arrived, that still yields a net change of 2 over two years. It's likely that the number of illegal border crossings is down, but probably not as much as they say.

Making things worse is how the population numbers are obtained. First, the Census estimates the number of immigrants or Latinos for 2007 and for 2009. Then Pew estimates what percentage of them are here legally in each year and subtracts that from the first estimate for each year. Then it compares the two resulting estimates. Yes, they do give error bars at the 90% CI and show it in one chart; how error's calculated isn't stated. The text ignores error and treats the numbers as absolute.

They do nicely distinguish, contra most DUers, between Mexican and other Central/South American immigrants. The Latino community more reliant on illegal border crossing is least changed; it's also the closest. Non-Latino illegal immigrant communities are also little effected.