Immigration 'problem' solved

[flashl]

The undocumented hesitate to enter a less-alluring U.S.

Lorenzo Martinez, an illegal immigrant who has lived in Los Angeles for six years, has a message for his kin in Mexico's Hidalgo state: Stay put.

The steady construction work that had allowed him to send home as much as $1,000 a month in recent years had disappeared. The 36-year-old father of four said desperation was growing among the day laborers with whom he was competing for odd jobs.

Sporadic employment isn't the half of it. Martinez said anxiety also was running high among undocumented workers about stepped-up workplace raids, deportations and increasing demands by U.S. employers for proof that they were in the country legally.

"Better not to come," Martinez said of anyone thinking about crossing into the U.S. illegally. "The situation is really bad."

That message seems to be getting through. There are numerous signs of a slowdown in illegal immigration.

* A recent survey by Mexican authorities shows that fewer Mexicans say they are planning to seek work outside the country. In the third quarter of 2007, about 47,000 said they'd be packing their bags. That's down nearly one-third from the same quarter a year earlier.

* U.S. border authorities arrested just under 877,000 illegal crossers in fiscal 2007, which ended in September, down 20% compared with the year before. A drop in apprehensions is often interpreted as a sign that fewer migrants are attempting the trip.

* The growth rate of the U.S. Mexican-born population has dropped by nearly half to 4.2% in 2007 from about 8% in 2005 and 2006, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Hispanic Center.

* Employment of foreign-born Hispanics increased at a markedly slower pace in the first quarter of 2007 than during the same period in the previous three years, according to Pew. The slowdown was particularly noticeable in the bellwether construction industry.

Growth in employment of foreign-born Hispanics in that sector was 10.9% early this year, compared with an average first-quarter growth rate of 19.8% from 2004 to 2006.

LA Times - Read Full Text

[annabanana]

1. So does this mean that their former employers will raise the wages

high enough to get Americans to do it?

[heidler1]

6. What it means to me is forget building the wall and do a better job on

policing the employers. Check out all wire money transfers.

[demnan]

2. This is true where I live in Prince William County VA

The immigrant workers are really out of work with the housing bust. They are also affected in this working class area by foreclosure on houses. I'm looking around and seeing empty homes all over the place and the businesses that once flourished are closing up shop. The Giant Food store is empty on a Saturday morning. It is really creepy.

I think they are leaving our county for other places.

Woodbridge looks like a ghost town.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. GOP Saves The Day AGAIN!

Wow, so the GOP has ended the War in Iraq, and ended illegal immigrants in America!

Wow, they are so successful.

NOT.

Stephen Colbert saw through all their shenanigans!

http://wikiality.com/Illegal_Mexican_Immigrant_for_President_%2708

[tularetom]

4. When it gets really shitty Amurkins will sneak into Mexico

and I don't expect that it'll be too long before that begins to occur. After all a job at 75 cents an hour is better than no job at all.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Good news for those Americans desperate for jobs as gardeners, car washers, and migrant farmworkers.

[focusfan]

7. Less jobs for them will also mean less jobs for us

Bad times they are a comming

[Hydra]

8. Yeah, this is a bad sign for us

if they can't find any $5 per hour jobs, you know things are bad.

Ironic that we are having the same problem they are- Our oligarchs are sucking us dry, too.

I hope everyone is paying attention. If we hadn't allowed Bush to support the stealing of Mexico's election, they wouldn't be coming here at all.

[blondeatlast]

9. It's good to know others lay the blame squarely on GWB and the

corrupt Mexican election (for which I'm fairly certain Cheney, if not Bush, is directly complicit).

Far too little progressive notice was paid to that "minor" news story (which, of course, is actually quite major).

[Hydra]

10. Nothing minor about it

GWB called the current figurehead of Mexico to congratulate him even before the election was certified. That was telling.

I have a hard time with the majority positions here- I'm not for amnesty, since there is a LEGAL process to immigrate, if you really want to live here. OTOH, I know they wouldn't be running the border and working as slaves here if they could make a living in Mexico, so I opt to push for us to stop making them miserable down there with our interference.

[blondeatlast]

11. Sorry; I was being facetious with the "minor." The US corp-whore media virtually

ignored the story--I live in a border state and watch Spanish language news (one really gets a different perspective away from the US giants). It was a big story with them, barely a hiccup here (if any whatsoever) about Bush's support for the corrupt elections there.

Sorry I wan't clear on that.

[Hydra]

12. Ah

I don't watch MSM anymore, and I remember it being HUGE here on DU. Many of us were holding our breath at the idea of some real change down there.

As you say, Cheney was nice enough to get drunk and shoot us in the face again.