The end of Mexican immigration?
But masses of people do not uproot themselves from familiar territory just to make marginal economic gains. They migrate to pursue dreams or escape nightmares.
Life in Mexico is not a nightmare for many these days. Beneath the headlines about killings in the drug wars, Mexico has become a predominantly middle-class country, as Jorge Castañeda notes in his recent book, Mañana Forever? Its economy is growing faster than ours.
And the dreams that many Mexican immigrants pursued have been shattered.
You can see that if you look at the statistics on mortgage foreclosures, starting with the housing bust in 2007. More than half were in the four “sand states” — California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida — and within them, as the Pew Hispanic Center noted in a 2009 report, in areas with large numbers of Latino immigrants.
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Illegals from any country need to be stopped.
A nation with no secure borders is self-doomed.
The suicidal plan, since 1965, of Dems looking for votes and Repubs looking for serfs.
If this madness is not finally reversed, America is defunct.
profitsbeard on December 10, 2012 at 7:48 PM
If it is, it’s only because they managed to export all their poor people to America to be supported by the US taxpayers.
That’s “social justice”, or something.
Rebar on December 10, 2012 at 7:54 PM
Concur!
astonerii on December 10, 2012 at 7:55 PM
Er .. weren’t these the peons who wangled a million dollar mortgage, then never pain a cent?
OldEnglish on December 10, 2012 at 7:56 PM
Paid, even. Oh, I don’t know, though…
OldEnglish on December 10, 2012 at 7:58 PM
Maybe by crashing capitalism, the Obama can sell self-deportation as well as he sells guns.
petefrt on December 10, 2012 at 8:00 PM
No, Mexican illegal immigration has not ended. Lots are still coming illegally, it is just that the amount coming has declined some because of the bad economy (so yes, cutting off the job supply with better workplace enforcement and employer sanctions would work). At the same time, a lot of mexican illegals self-deported.
However, this trend won’t continue. The US will always be better off than Mexico long-term and once the US economy recovers, the flow of illegals will rise again quickly.
The best thing to do would be to use the slow of mexican illegal immigration to push for strong enforcement measures to prevent the next spike from happening. This means using strong employment verification enforcement, border security, and keeping up the high pace of deportations. If the liberals don’t believe the illegals will be coming in large numbers, exploit this mistake to get conservative immigration priorities done.
Liberals are certainly trying to use the same tactic in reverse: trying to claim that enforcement is working (its not, a bad economy is not enforcement) and therefore we should open the floodgates and leave them open for when the next wave decided to come north.
kaltes on December 10, 2012 at 8:05 PM
Not really. The only point at which the majority of the 20+ million wetbacks will start heading south again is when, say, the ObamArmy starts pounding on doors for enforced labor for the Greater Good.
Or in other words, the situation would have to be utterly wretched. Native Mexicans are leaving a land where nothing short of mass targeted killings of drug-running scum will help. We are seriously talking a total revolution or assassinations to the tune of tens of thousands.
MelonCollie on December 10, 2012 at 8:21 PM
Its proximity, size and historical resentment/neurosis toward the US will always make Mexico a special case. It’s why I resist viewing this issue with a generic immigration-related perspective.
Seth Halpern on December 10, 2012 at 8:27 PM
Come on will ya’….?
How many times do we have to pretend that Mexicans are just these salt of the earth people who just want to work?
I don’t care how good the economy in Mexico is it will not overcome the prospect of free rent, free food and medical care plus American citizenship for their kids and eventual citizenship for themselves.
Our own politicians and the president himself bend over backwards to kiss their asses and they certainly have no need to assimilate to American culture as there are many large enclaves of their fellow Mexicans.
They can come here and set up shop and once they are legal they will just vacation in Mexico once or twice a year if they miss it.
No one is going home.
NeoKong on December 10, 2012 at 8:33 PM
Michael Barone boldly states his stats. His stats are boldly stated. As were his stats of states Mitt Romney stood to stash.
33% correct.
Stop.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on December 10, 2012 at 8:35 PM
Ah Mr Barone, don’t tease me you lousy bastadge. That headline is one of the most positive things I’ve seen since 11/7.
waterytart on December 10, 2012 at 9:25 PM
Maybe net immigration has stopped, but in the RGV of Texas, a record number of dead illegals have been found in the brush this year. Many are OTMs–other than Mexican. Those that can be identified, that is, after the hogs are done with their corpses. Also, drug cartel violence is ongoing. Cartels have moved onto Texas ranches, and much of Mexico is still a no-go zone to visit because it’s too dangerous.
San Antonio has a colony of several thousand legal wealthy Mexican nationals who moved here to avoid the violence. One of my friends who’s originally from Mexico declared she was going to go back to Mexico because Obama won. Her brother told her, ok, you can join that new sorority, the Zetas.
Still, it’s a good thing that Mexico is doing better economically. That is really the only way that illegal immigration can be slowed down. Northern Mexico is in general more industry friendly than the chilangos in the capital. My husband learned the other day that a lot of the Peterbilts, Kenworths and other big trucks we see here are built in Monterey.
juliesa on December 10, 2012 at 9:49 PM