Pew: More Mexicans Leaving US Than Entering

From the open border lobby at the Washington Post:

For first time since Depression, more Mexicans leave U.S. than enter

By Tara Bahrampour, Published: April 23

A four-decade tidal wave of Mexican immigration to the United States has receded, causing a historic shift in migration patterns as more Mexicans appear to be leaving the United States for Mexico than the other way around, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

So this did not happen during Mr. Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback?

By the way, why did Pew only study Mexicans? We thought characterizing illegal aliens as Mexicans was racist.

It looks to be the first reversal in the trend since the Depression, and experts say that a declining Mexican birthrate and other factors may make it permanent.

“I think the massive boom in Mexican immigration is over and I don’t think it will ever return to the numbers we saw in the 1990s and 2000s,” said Douglas Massey, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and co-director of the Mexican Migration Project, which has been gathering data on the subject for 30 years.

Nearly 1.4 million Mexicans moved from the United States to Mexico between 2005 and 2010, double the number who did so a decade earlier. The number of Mexicans who moved to the United States during that period fell to less than half of the 3 million who came between 1995 and 2000.

These numbers sound quite low to our ears.

The trend could have major political consequences, underscoring the delicate dance by the Republican and Democratic parties as they struggle with immigration policies and court the increasingly important Latino vote.

Illegal immigration has emerged as one of the most emotional political issues in the country — one that dominated much of the Republican presidential contest and has proven complicated for President Obama.

Which is why the DNC’s hometown paper is running this article on their front page. To try to convince everyone that there is nothing to worry about by passing amnesty and giving everyone free healthcare and welfare benefits.

Mitt Romney has courted conservatives with aggressive anti-illegal immigration rhetoric. But the GOP presidential hopeful has said in recent days that he wants to build ties with Hispanics, many of whom have chafed at his statements, and the new immigration trends could offer him a chance to soften his stance.

Obama has been criticized by immigrant advocates for stepped-up deportation policies that analysts have said were partly responsible for the decreasing flow of Mexicans into the United States. The trend could offer the president a political silver lining: the chance to take credit for a policy success that, his aides have said in the past, should persuade Republicans to embrace a broad immigration overhaul plan…

You see? Passing amnesty would be a feather in the cap for any politician. Even Republicans. After all, the 1986 Amnesty is why we revere President Reagan today.

And why worry about securing the border first? Illegal aliens don’t want to come here nowadays. They no longer want better better paying jobs, or free healthcare, or great welfare benefits. Pew says so.

SOURCE: Sweetless Light