In another example of reality undercutting the hysterical claims by anti-immigration proponents that border failures and a flood of new illegal immigrants require discriminatory state laws to “fill in the gap,” the Immigration Policy Center reports that immigration from Mexico (the largest source of immigration) has decreased by 60% since 2006! But this does not mean that the Administration’s “enforcement-only” approach is working. Indeed, as the Immigration Policy Center states:
The reports also reveal that, despite years of increased spending on immigration enforcement, including record-setting numbers of deportations under the Obama Administration—and despite the impact of a recession and persistently stagnant labor market in the United States—fewer Mexican immigrants are leaving the country now than in years past. Moreover, the Mexican American population continues to increase, and Mexican immigrants in the United States have become the parents of a new generation of Mexican Americans. In other words, Mexican immigrants are staying and they are becoming more and more integrated into U.S. society.
Contrary to statements by anti-immigrant groups, there is no “unprecedented rise in the number of immigrants admitted to this country every year”. Rather three-fifths of unauthorized immigrants have been here more than ten years and many are having children. What this means is that harsher enforcement methods and new state anti-immigrant laws will disproportionately serve to break up families, harming US citizen children, and disrupt communities, without much effect on incoming immigration, which has already drastically dropped.
Source: Mexican Migration Patterns Signal a New Immigration Reality