7:47 PM
Immigration dropping to levels not seen in decades
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, December 6 2011, 8:03 AM
Almost two-thirds of the estimated 10.2 million adult undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have lived here for at least 10 years, according to a study released this week by the Pew Hispanic Center.
About half of them have children under 18 years old.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's proposal to regularize the status of some undocumented immigrants drew fire from rivals Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann, who said the plan would provide incentive for illegal immigration.
But the Pew study provides the latest evidence of an unprecedented drop in illegal immigration, particularly from Mexico, which seems to have more to do with changing economic conditions than government policy.
"The rising share of unauthorized immigrants who have been in the U.S. for a long duration reflects the fact that the sharpest growth in this population occurred during the late 1990s and early 2000s — and that the inflow has slowed down significantly in recent years, as the U.S. economy has sputtered and border enforcement has tightened," the study states.
Arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border — another key measure of illegal immigration flows — dropped this year to levels not seen since the 1970s, even as the number of Border Patrol officers there has doubled since 2004.
The Border Patrol arrested 327,577 people illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico in fiscal year 2011, a 25% drop from the previous year, The Washington Post reports.
"We have reached the point where the balance between Mexicans moving to the United States and those returning to Mexico is essentially zero," Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center told The Washington Post.
The New York Times reported in July that Mexican immigration to the U.S. has slowed due for a variety of reasons, including more economic opportunity for potential migrants at home, rising violence along the border and the prolonged U.S. economic slump.
Posted in: 
