BarneyFife
Diamond Member
- Aug 12, 2001
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Originally posted by: Wheezer
WASHINGTON ? Illegal immigration, which has sparked political and social turmoil in communities across the nation, is on the wane, according to an independent report released Thursday.
The number of illegal immigrants entering the United States has slowed significantly the past few years, falling below the number of those entering the country legally for the first time in a decade, according to the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington think tank.
The report estimates there were 11.9 million illegal immigrants in the United States as of March. That would be a decline of 500,000 from the center?s estimate a year ago. However, the change was not statistically significant because of the large margins of error.
The Pew study does not address why the decrease occurred, but directors of ethnic community groups and officials of towns with large immigrant populations ? as well as other researchers ? cite stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws and the struggling economy.
"People are deciding that the risk of crossing the border ? something that has resulted in so many deaths ? and then of living here in fear of being arrested and deported, is maybe, these days, too high a price," said Tamara Morales, vice president of the Passaic-based Casa Puebla-NJ.
Morales and other community leaders in North Jersey say they have noticed more and more immigrants returning ? or seriously considering returning ? to their native countries.
Illegal immigrants are notoriously difficult to count. Many researchers, including the federal government, estimate there are about 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. That would a big increase from the start of the decade, when the Pew Hispanic Center estimated there were about 8.5 million.
Ed Durfee, a Northvale resident and member of United Patriots of America, a New Jersey-based organization that favors strict immigration policies, welcomed the news about declining illegal immigration.
"If you come here illegally and don?t do anything but take, then it?s a good thing if there?s less of them," Durfee said. "But we still have to tighten up our process so it?s not so easy to come here illegally and to stay here illegally."
Illegal immigrants make up about 30 percent of all immigrants, according to the report. Nationally, about four in five come from Latin America, with most coming from Mexico.
If a shitty economy does what the US government is unwilling or incapable of doing as far as illegal immigration....let the Dow drop like a rock.
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