[Marxism] CSM: Tide of illegal immigrants now being reversed

[Mike Friedman]

Tide of illegal immigrants now being reversed
Border crackdown and tough economic times in the US are seen as reasons.
By Gail Russell Chaddock
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the July 31, 2008 edition

Washington - Some 1.3 million illegal immigrants have left the United
States since Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform in
the summer of 2007. If the trend continues, according to a new study, the
nation's illegal population will drop by half in the next five years.

Moreover, reports the Center for Immigration Studies, young Hispanic
immigrants began heading south before the nation's economy did – a clue
that what's driving the new outmigration is a stepped-up border and
workplace enforcement, not a souring US job market.

The source of the report – a think tank with a record of opposing illegal
and even some legal immigration – is controversial in immigrant
communities. But its findings could help frame the debate in a new
Congress and a new administration.

The key conclusion is that enforcement, not the economy, is driving the
decision to self-deport.

"The dropoff in illegal immigration seems to occur before there is a runup
in their unemployment rate," says Steven Camarota, director of research at
the Center for Immigration Studies.

[...]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0731/p01s03-ussc.html