Border arrests drop to 1970s levels

[babylonsister]

Border arrests drop to 1970s levels

Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times

Riding an all-terrain vehicle, a U.S. Border Patrol agent inspects a fence for signs of illegal alterations. The unique design of the steel fence allows it to "float" atop the wind-blown sand.
With the economy in tatters and security beefed up at the U.S.-Mexico border, fewer people are willing to cross illegally. Arrests in the last five months are down 24% from the same period last year.

By Richard Marosi
March 8, 2009


Reporting from San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico -- Arrests of illegal immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen to levels unseen since the 1970s as the ailing U.S. economy and enhanced enforcement appear to be deterring people from trekking north.

The trend is apparent from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, but is most dramatically felt on the border's busiest illegal immigrant corridors, which extend through the Mexican state of Sonora to Arizona and California.

In the sleepy Sonoran town of San Luis Rio Colorado, the migrants that once streamed through have all but disappeared. Piles of donated clothing spill from a closet at the town's migrant shelter, and shoeshine boys now outnumber slumbering immigrants at Benito Juarez Plaza.

Just across the border in Yuma County, Ariz., there are days when U.S. Border Patrol agents don't arrest anyone, an almost unthinkable prospect three years ago when the area was the busiest illegal crossing point into the country, with thousands of immigrants flooding across on some days.

"We were in shock," said Ben Vik, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman, referring to the two days in December when no apprehensions were reported in the patrol sector that protects 126 miles of the frontier.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-border8-2009mar08,0,5387682.story

[ReliantJ]

1. Interesting note:

Hate groups are on the rise according to the SPLC

[robinlynne]

2. here in California, my cleaning lady says all her friends are moving back to Mexico.

legal or illegal, there is no work here.

[Andy823]

7. Probably a good idea.

While many jobs in the U.S. are vanishing, those in Mexico may start to flourish! Auto makers that have plants in Mexico are going to keep them going because labor is cheaper. Other corporations that have move to Mexico will keep on producing goods as well, and with the economy so bad here, and the cost of living much higher than in Mexico, it's probably a wise idea to go back. More jobs may be available there than here, at least till the economy picks up. I don't really see a drop in the mexican labor force in my area, and have not heard about any shortage right now. When cherries come on in late June on into July, then is when we will find out here just how bad things are when it comes to the labor force that shows up here every year.

I do know that a lot of those who used to work the fields moved on to construction jobs about 4 years back because there was a high demand for cheap labor in the bigger cities. Now construction work is pretty much shut down so many of them may be either coming back to work in the agriculture sector, or they may be going home also because the cost of living is much higher here. I still have not see the price of food going down even though fuel costs have dropped.

[DJ13]

3. With the violence on the border, Im surprised

I suspect this is only a lull, and soon they will long for these days of inactivity.

[ReliantJ]

11. I didn't think of that

maybe it's the violence that is deterring them to get closer to the border (along with the economy obviously)

[originalpckelly]

4. The fence is a modern day Hadrian's Wall...

it marked the beginning of the end of this empire.

[lapfog_1]

5. There are a number of reasons...

1. The new border enforcement (aka the wall or virtual war plus more agents) is having some effect.

2. Lack of opportunity in the US... there aren't any jobs. 7000 people applying for 1 job as a janitor
someplace yesterday.

3. Coyotes are charging more and the immigrants have less ability to pay (fewer jobs here means that
relatives that previously immigrated have less ability to pay for family members that wish to immigrate).

4. Violence in the northern border states of Mexico is out of control. Mexico is close to becoming a
failed state, especially in the border cities of Ciudad Juarez and TJ. It's dangerous for anyone
to travel in those places. The last family that I had contact with (illegal immigrants) said that they
had to install plate steel on all of their windows because of the number of stray bullets flying around,
and the wife and kid (10 year old boy) never, ever left the house until they left for the border. The
man was routinely robbed on his way to work as a car mechanic. His son hadn't been to school in years.

5. Arizona last year started a state policy of prosecuting employers that hire illegal workers.

[anonymous171]

6. Should help a little.

Less cheap labor can mean higher wages for the rest of us.

[roamer65]

8. Wait until unemployment reaches 25-30% here in the US.

The border patrol's job will then become keeping Americans inside the US.

[sufrommich]

9. For what reason? nt

[roamer65]

10. Mexico is already on the edge of civil war.

Imagine if immigration switched directions.

[ReliantJ]

12. Better start working on our tans! (those of us who need them)

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. Taxes and cannon fodder

.
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What else?