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Why Has Illegal Immigration From Mexico Declined?
ResumeIllegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. is down. We’ll talk about the reasons why.
In the last thirty years, millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico poured into the United States, with big impact on the U.S. economy and U.S. politics.
It was a gusher: Half a million illegals or more a year, for years at a stretch.
And now, the gusher’s over.
Americans are still yelling about illegal immigration, and millions of undocumented workers remain. But the actual flow from Mexico is way, way down.
A trickle compared to the flood. The reasons are not as simple as you might think.
This hour On Point: what threw the brakes on illegal immigration from Mexico?
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Damien Cave, New York Times foreign correspondent based in Mexico City.
Katharine Donato, professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University.
Roberto Newell Garcia, vice president of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness.
From Tom's Reading List:
- The New York Times: "The extraordinary Mexican migration that delivered millions of illegal immigrants to the United States over the past 30 years has sputtered to a trickle, and research points to a surprising cause: unheralded changes in Mexico that have made staying home more attractive."
- The Los Angeles Times: "Nearly 500,000 people from Central America and beyond traverse Mexico each year en route to the U.S., according to the Mexican government human rights office. Most now have to pay a smuggler, and increasingly, they are kidnapped, held for ransom and in the most brutal of cases, killed. Their tormentors are criminal gangs often working in cahoots with Mexican immigration and police agents, authorities say."
- The Washington Post: "Overall, the wages of immigrant workers generate new consumers and businesses, increase tax revenue, and help fuel the nation’s economic growth."
This hour, we'll hear "Cancion 187" by Juan Gabriel & Mariachi.
This program aired on July 7, 2011.