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increase among illegal Mexicans was stagnant at about seven million
people.

There was a marked decrease last year, Mr. Passel said, in the numbers
of illegal immigrants from the rest of Latin America and the
Caribbean, which make up about 22 percent of the illegal population.
That population had also grown erratically in the past decade from 1.8
million in 2000 to 3 million in 2007. This year, according to the Pew
report, the numbers dropped to 2.6 million.

Border Patrol officials and groups advocating tougher immigration
controls attributed the trend to crackdowns that include record
numbers of workplace raids and deportations.

The Border Patrol's arrest figures give some substance to that
conclusion. An agency spokesman, Jason Cilberti, said the latest
arrest figures showed significant decreases in the numbers of arrests
along the nation's southwest border, with apprehensions falling by 78
percent around Yuma, Ariz., and more than 60 percent around El Paso,
Tex.

Mr. Passel said the Pew study was not devised to explain why the
inflows of illegal immigrants had declined. He speculated, however,
that the trend was the result of a combination of factors, led
primarily by a weakening economy and rising rates of unemployment in
the construction and service industries, which rely heavily on
immigrant labor.

Another report by the center also released Thursday studied household
income and found that the median annual income for noncitizen
households =97 more than half of which are led by illegal immigrants =97
fell 7.3 percent from 2006 to 2007, while rising by 1.3 percent for
all households.

Elaborating on the income report, its author, Rakesh Kochhar, said
that noncitizen households showing the biggest income declines were
households headed by Hispanics, immigrants from Mexico, those most
recently arrived, men without a spouse, those without high school
educations, and those in construction, production or service jobs.

"If the jobs are not there, then coming to the United States might be
too big a risk," said Jeffrey Davidow, president of the Institute of
the Americas, which is based in San Diego.

Mr. Davidow and Mr. Passel agreed that a harsher political climate has
also played a role in making the United States less attractive to
illegal immigrants.

A Pew survey of 2,015 Latinos released in September showed that half
reported their lives had worsened in the past year. One in 10 said the
authorities had stopped and questioned them about their immigration
status. One in seven of those surveyed said they had trouble finding
or keeping a job because they were Latino; and one in 10 reported
similar trouble finding housing.

The central bank reports suggested that effects of those trends were
being felt beyond America's border. A report released Wednesday by the
Inter-American Development Bank, which is based in Washington,
projected that the value of remittances from the United States to
Latin America and the Caribbean would decrease this year for the first
time since the bank began tracking the figures in 2000.

In Mexico, where remittances are the second-largest source of foreign
income after oil, officials projected a 12 percent drop this year, the
biggest on record.

Paradoxically, Augusto de la Torre, a chief economist at the World
Bank, said slight improvements in several Latin American economies,
including those of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama and Peru, might
have compelled some people in the region to stay closer to home. "For
the first time in a decade, there are economies in Latin America that
are doing better than in rich countries," Mr. de la Torre said. "So
people who were thinking of going to the United States, might now be
migrating to other countries in the region."