Arizona Backtracks on Immigration

It appears that the results of Arizona's SB 1070 anti-immigration law has had a sobering effect on the citizens of that state.  Yesterday, the architect of the law was thrown out by voters in favor of a reform advocate.

Senator Russell Pearce (AZ-18), was soundly defeated by pro-immigrant challenger, Jerry Lewis, in a special election. Pearce authored the viciously anti-immigrant law in Arizona that was passed last year, and has since been duplicated in states across the country.
Pearce’s defeat is a warning bell to other lawmakers considering such legislation that citizens will not stand for these racial and discriminatory measures.
Our allies on the ground, Promise Arizona in Action fought relentlessly in this effort. Executive Director Petra Falcon said the organization will continue to hold politicians accountable: “This victory shows that the citizens of Arizona want fair immigration reform and will not stand for any law that racially profiles any segment of the community,” Falcon said. “It is now time for our community to move forward together, inclusively.”

Read more:  http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/blog/sb1070-architect-ousted-in-arizona-state-recall-election/

Washington State Now Using Inmates to Pick Apples

Washington apple growers have been unable to find enough migrant workers to pick their crops inspite of a wide-spread campagn to recruit pickers.  This is a side effect of the anti-immigration movement nation wide since nearly 400,000 undocumented workers are being deported annually.

Photo:  The Wenatchee World

State apple growers sounded an alarm in recent weeks of a severe shortage of pickers. Signs were put up at orchards. Ads were taken out on radio. Newspapers and TV stations reported the story of the shortage after Gov. Chris Gregoire put out a call for help. Many unemployed workers did apply for jobs, but few stayed.

"It's hard work," she said. There are seven guards to make sure the inmate workers stay on the job until it's done, but it's an expensive proposition for the grower, Wilis admits. McDougall will pay $22 an hour for each inmate. Inmates are paid minimum wage, but deductions for crime compensation, incarceration costs, child support and other bills reduces that to between $1 and $2 an hour. Most of what growers are charged pays for transportation, housing and security. Most inmates picked three or four 800-pound bins of apples in that first day.

So again, we find evidence that undocumented immigrants are not taking jobs away from "normal citizens".  American citizens just don't want to do this kind of work, even if they are out of a job.  And with 9 percent of us officially unemployed, that's a lot of people unwilling to take such a job.

Read more:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016670717_apwainmateapplepickers1stldwritethru.html

What Does Assimilation Look Like - In Iowa

                                                                     Photo:     wiki.triastelematica.org

For a look at assimilation of immigrants in the US, we need go no further than the heartland - small town rural Iowa where the first bilingual classes in the state began, where initial fears gave way to acceptance, where businesses are now thriving rather than folding.

Downtown West Liberty, Iowa, is quintessentially Midwestern American, both quaint and historic, with brick buildings lining brick streets. A typical stroll involves walking past the bank, a renovated theater, a hair salon, restaurants and stores.

West Liberty Mayor Chad Thomas says that unlike a lot of other small Midwestern towns that are dying, West Liberty is alive.

"I see a lot of businesses that are open, and not vacant storefronts," Thomas says. "Probably half of the businesses are Hispanic-owned."

Next to Paul Revere's Pizza on 3rd Street is Tienda La Luna, and next to the American Legion Hall is the popular Acapulco Mexican Bakery.

Now at 3,700 people and counting, the eastern Iowa town is growing and thriving, Thomas says.

"If you didn't have the Hispanic population here in town, yeah, we would be much more like a lot of smaller towns, and there would be a lot more storefronts that are empty," he says.

And unlike other parts of the Midwest that are attracting Latino immigrants, the Hispanic population in West Liberty is not new.

"I mean, we're very unique in that there's folks in this community, in the Hispanic community, that are here in their fifth and sixth generation," Thomas says.

In the 2000 census, West Liberty was already well over 40 percent Latino, and has been steadily growing for decades.

The first big surge in Latino immigrants arrived in the 1930s for jobs in what was then a Louis Rich turkey processing plant.

That plant, now called West Liberty Foods, is still a draw for some newcomers. But most of the recent increase in the Hispanic population comes from growing, established families who came for the Louis Rich jobs, stayed and planted roots in this quiet, safe and friendly small town.

HARD WORK

Jose Zacarias is among them. The 56-year-old moved to West Liberty from Mexico in 1984, working first in the turkey processing plant, a job he said was dirty, grueling and dangerous. By learning English, he was able to get better factory jobs. They were farther away, but Zacarias continued living in West Liberty.

He bought a big old farmhouse on the outskirts of West Liberty 20 years ago and raised three boys there. He called it and the two acres around him "a quiet piece of heaven" — until the new high school was built nearby a few years ago.

INITIAL FEARS

He considers many Anglos among his closest friends, and says the white and Hispanic communities in West Liberty get along well. But he says it wasn't always this way.

"When I arrived here in '84, they told me that such and such businessman wouldn't allow it, like for instance, the bar owners, wouldn't allow Mexican customers there, or they despise them openly, or things like that," Zacarias says.

But Zacarias and others in West Liberty say such conflicts gradually faded away, especially as Hispanics became more economically integrated into the community, and as the schools better integrated the community's children.

School with a WAITING LIST

The West Liberty school system has what was the first dual-language program in the state.

Students take all of their classes in both Spanish and English, switching from an English-language teacher in the morning to a Spanish-language teacher in the afternoon.

West Liberty Elementary School principal Nancy Gardner says the program is voluntary, with half of the spots reserved for kids who speak English primarily at home, and half for those who speak Spanish.

INTEGRATION

"And in the end, all the students then become bilingual, biliterate and bicultural," Gardner says.

The dual language program is now in its 14th year, and last spring graduated its first high school senior class of students who started as kindergartners.

The program is so successful, several Anglo families have moved to West Liberty from nearby Iowa City, Muscatine and other towns specifically to enroll their kids. The program, which now has a waiting list, is being duplicated in a handful of other Iowa school districts with growing Hispanic populations.

Read more from this source:  http://www.iowaimmigrationeducation.org/index.cfm?nodeID=19036&audienceID=1&action=display&newsID=15065

New Alabama Law: Crops rot in the field

Nueva ley de inmigración de Alabama.  Es el más severa de los EEUU.  Los partidarios dicen que la norma debe producir más trabajo para los ciudadanos mientras que las voces criticas aseguran que saca los derechos civiles. Pero la cosecha se pudre en los campos y los agricultores no pueden encontrar trabajadores suficientes para cosechar, porque la mayoría de los trabajadores - legales y sin papeles - han salido los trabajos y han huido.  Tambien, los administradores de cárceles se preocupan que no tienen espacio ni capacidad para detener más personas.

New immigration law in Alabama.  It's the most severe in the US.  Supporters say that the rule should produce more work for citizens while critics claim that it robs some of civil rights.  But food is rotting in the fields and farmers are unable to find sufficient workers to harvest their crops, since most of the workers have left their jobs and departed from the area.  Jail administrators are also concerned since they don't have the capacity to hold detainees.

Arizona Anti-immigrant Law Backfires. Mexicans Welcome Back

Arizona's anti-immigration law is causing tremendous economic hardships on Arizona's businesses and citizens.  In a radical change of heart, many are calling for a new worker visa program in order to bring mexican workers back to Arizona.

Texas Gov Rick Perry on Immigration Reform

August 24, 2011
What would Rick Perry do with immigration reform if he is elected President of the United States?

Gov. Rick Perry (Rep.) of Texas with former President Fox of Mexico

                                             

Set aside the campaign chatter. Perry actually has a relatively moderate record on immigration. In 2001, he signed a law allowing undocumented students who graduate from Texas high schools to pay in-state tuition at Texas public universities. Last year he criticized Arizona's strict new immigration enforcement law, and said that it wouldn't be right for Texas. He's called for a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship. Other than this year's campaign against sanctuary cities, there is little in his decade-plus as governor to suggest that he has the appetite for a crackdown on economic migrants. NumbersUSA, a group that campaigns for less immigration, has given him a "D-" -- worse, in their view, than Michele Bachman, Mitt Romney, or Sarah Palin.
Perry has, of course, been hawkish about border security. He has repeatedly said that both border security and immigration reform fall into what he sees as the rather narrow category of Washington's responsibilities, and he argues that the former takes precedence over the latter -- or should, at least. In New Hampshire last week, he told the Union-Leader that the president has been turning "a blind eye" to the border. But, interestingly, he describes border security as a different issue from immigration reform. "Texans in particular enjoy a unique culture that has been greatly enriched by immigrants from all over the world, and especially from Mexico," he wrote in his 2010 book, Fed Up!, adding a comment about how great Tex-Mex food is. He continued: "Yet this has absolutely nothing to do with border security. We can have all the immigration debates we want, but Americans are demanding that the border be secured first."

source:  http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/what-rick-perry-can-teach-the-gop-about-immigration/244084/

Million skilled immigrants await 120k visas -- Results: Brain Drain

More than one million skilled immigrant workers, including scientists, engineers, doctors and researchers and their families, are competing for 120,000 permanent U.S. resident visas each year, creating a sizeable imbalance likely to fuel a "reverse brain-drain" with skilled workers returning to their home country, according to a new report released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The situation is even bleaker as the number of employment visas issued to immigrants from any single country is less than 10,000 per year with a wait time of several years.
"The United States benefits from having foreign-born innovators create their ideas in this country," said Vivek Wadhwa, Wertheim fellow with the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. "Their departures would be detrimental to U.S. economic well-being. And, when foreigners come to the United States, collaborate with Americans in developing and patenting new ideas, and employ those ideas in business in ways they could not readily do in their home countries, the world benefits."
Conducted by researchers at Duke University, New York University and Harvard University, the study is the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants’ contributions to the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. Earlier research revealed a dramatic increase in the contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property over an eight-year period.
In this study, "Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain," researchers offer a more refined measure of this rise in contributions of foreign nationals to U.S. intellectual property and seek to explain this increase with an analysis of the immigrant-visa backlog for skilled workers. The key finding from this research is that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the United States. This imbalance creates the potential for a sizeable reverse brain-drain from the United States to the skilled workers’ home countries.
The earlier studies, "America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs" and "Entrepreneurship, Education and Immigration: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part II," documented that one in four engineering and technology companies founded between 1995 and 2005 had an immigrant founder. Researchers found that these companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in revenue in 2006. Indian immigrants founded more companies than the next four groups (from the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan and Japan) combined.
Furthermore, these companies’ founders tended to be highly educated in science, technology, math and engineering-related disciplines, with 96 percent holding bachelor’s degrees and 75 percent holding master’s or PhD degrees.
Among key findings in the most recent report:

• Foreign nationals residing in the United States were named as inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 percent of international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006. This represents an increase from 7.6 percent in 1998.
• Foreign nationals contributed to more than half of the international patents filed by a number of large, multi-national companies, including Qualcomm (72 percent), Merck & Co. (65 percent), General Electric (64 percent), Siemens (63 percent) and Cisco (60 percent). Forty-one percent of the patents filed by the U.S. government had foreign nationals as inventors or co-inventors.
• In 2006, 16.8 percent of international patent applications from the United States had an inventor or co-inventor with a Chinese-heritage name, representing an increase from 11.2 percent in 1998. The contribution of inventors with Indian-heritage names increased to 13.7 percent from 9.5 percent in the same period.
• The total number of employment-based principals in the employment-based categories and their family members waiting for legal permanent residence in the United States in 2006 was estimated at 1,055,084. Additionally, there are an estimated 126,421 residents abroad also waiting for employment-based U.S. legal permanent residence, adding up to a worldwide total of 1,181,505.

Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, the authors find that, in 2003, approximately one in five new legal immigrants in the United States and about one in three employment-based new legal immigrants either planned to leave the United States or were uncertain about remaining. The authors had no data on how many foreign nationals have actually returned to their homelands.
"Given that the U.S. comparative advantage in the global economy is in creating knowledge and applying it to business, it behooves the country to consider how we might adjust policies to reduce the immigration backlog, encourage innovative foreign minds to remain in the country, and entice new innovators to come," said Robert Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation.

Read more:  http://www.kauffman.org/Details.aspx?id=1020

Telling the New American Dreamers - "Go Elsewhere !"

By JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 6/15/11 8:02 AM EDT Updated: 6/15/11 4:18 PM EDT

In a major speech to the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the United States risks “national suicide” if it doesn’t adopt a more welcoming immigration policy.

“We will not remain a global superpower if we continue to close our doors to people who want to come here to work hard, start businesses, and pursue the American dream,” Bloomberg said.

 "The American dream cannot survive if we keep telling the dreamers to go elsewhere,” the mayor adds. “It’s what I call national suicide – and that’s not hyperbole.”

Immigration reform, he argues, is the key to creating new jobs and setting the economy on a steady path into the future.
Bloomberg’s speech comes as the Partnership for a New American Economy, of which he is a co-chair, releases a report looking at the role that immigrants play at Fortune 500 companies and the potential. Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants, the report notes.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57013.html#ixzz1UVNClVIv

Immigration policy affects individuals not just numbers.

How are these people affected by our immigration policies?

Texas Gov Still Supports Dream Act: Immigration

Republican Gov. Rick Perry is finding common ground on some immigration issues.  More of this kind of thinking and acting would go a long way in solving our broken system which stresses deportation and encarceration.

In sharp contrast to the national Republican Party line, Texas Gov. Rick Perry still supports his state's version of the so-called DREAM Act, which permits foreign-born children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition. "To punish these young Texans for their parents' actions is not what America has always been about," the potential dark horse GOP candidate told the New Hampshire Union Leader in his first New Hampshire interview of the 2012 campaign cycle.

Perry has not yet announced whether he will run for president, but he polls well. Real Clear Politics's average of polls, for example, puts him in fourth place behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is also undeclared. Perry opposes passing such legislation on the federal level, but his stance on immigration could tarnish his star among conservatives, who have fought efforts in other states and the U.S. Congress to pass similar legislation. Critics see such laws as a giveaway to people who have broken the law and unfair to American citizens who have to pay out-of-state tuition to attend universities across state lines.[See a roundup of political cartoons on the 2012 GOP primary candidates.]
In 2001, Perry signed the Texas DREAM Act, which allows in-state tuition for students who have lived in Texas for three years and either have obtained a GED or graduated from the state's public or accredited private schools. The state legislature had passed the law with bipartisan support. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on immigration reform.]
The act is different from the nation version, which Republicans in Congress have battled. The national DREAM Act would provide a pathway to citizenship to some young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors but who demonstrate "good moral character" and who go to a four-year college or join the military. The act was reintroduced in May after it failed to pass in the last Congress—it passed the House late last year when Democrats were still the majority, but Senate Democrats did not have enough votes to get it through. Opponents call the federal DREAM Act amnesty.

Source:
        

By Mallie Jane Kim

Posted: July 25, 2011

 US News    http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/07/25/rick-perry-stands-by-texas-dream-act

Do Latinos still support Obama and his immigration efforts?

Latinos supported Obama in 2008 by 60% after an inspiring speech that sounded like music to them.

But the magic of the moment fizzled soon after President Obama was elected. The party favors, orchestra, and minstrels soon disappeared and the defiant and catchy melody turned grave and bewildered.

While there were a few well-meaning efforts to address immigration reform in the House and Senate under Democratic leadership, no progress was made. Outside Washington, DC, between President Obama's first day in office and the end of June 2011, one million immigrants and families have been detained, deported, or fired from their place of work. In addition, the well-oiled enforcement machine led by ICE in collaboration with local police departments under the rubric of the wrongly-named "Secure Communities," I-9 audits, and 287(g) agreements, just to name a few, is running full speed ahead.
Understandably, when the president argued once again at this year's NCLR conference that he is unable to do much on his own unless Republicans acquiesce and change our broken immigration laws, the chorus of "yes, you can" politely and in crescendo interrupted him.
During his speech, President Obama went to great pains to remind listeners that his administration is "keeping our promises." The audience must have nodded that when it came to the economy, gay and lesbian rights, and women's issues, the president has indeed delivered. But when President Obama pivoted to immigration reform, he blamed Republicans for the impasse, chided those who call on him to use his executive authority to alleviate the suffering of immigrant families, and committed to keep up the fight while encouraging the community to "keep the heat on me and Democrats." Lastly the Pied Piper in Chief, dressed in a most charming outfit, conceded he knows "very well the real pain and heartbreak that deportations cause" and he made an appeal we have heard once before: "Let's be honest. I need a dance partner, and the floor's empty."
It must not be an easy for President Obama to be at a party and not have a partner he can enjoy the music with. Although his political advisors are telling the president he has Latinos in the bag in 2012, the jury is by far out deliberating whether or not this president means it when he says he will fight the fight with us on the moral and practical issue of immigration reform. Does he meant it when he says we will not be stepped upon again? Thousands and thousands, millions even, of families throughout the United States are suffering on a daily basis the failure of this administration and this Congress to update our immigration laws. In the absence of real reform, immigrant communities everywhere have endured two and a half years of sustained torture led by none other than another "friend" of the community, Secretary Janet Napolitano, and face an increasing chorus of legislatures approving anti-immigrant, discriminatory, and unconstitutional laws. This song's tune is not for dancing.
Thus, the president must have surely felt the heat even while he read his speech at the NCLR conference. If he did, he kept his composure and was as eloquent and convincing as he was in 2008. But President Obama, Republicans and Democrats should recognize that we have danced together quite a lot during the past two years and a half and our feet are getting tired. Not tired enough to stop our fight for justice and changes in immigration laws so that they accurately reflect our nation's compassion, values, and interest. Not tired enough not to register millions more and switch the tune at the ballot box if this one does not suit us. Certainly we are not tired enough to remind our national elected leaders that even the most avid dancer can trip if he is not careful.

Source:  Jorge-Mario Cabrera,   The Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jorgemario-cabrera/obama-immigration-policy-and-latino-vote_b_910328.html

25% of Start-up Firms: Immigrants at work

Foreigners in the US are responsible for nearly 25 percent of start-up American firms, findings of a latest research by Harvard, NYU and Duke, UC-Berkeley reveal.

No wonder, several policy makers are being asked for increasing the quota for highly skilled worker visas in the US.

As per the study, out of the total start-up companies established between the year 1995 and 2005 in Silicon Valley, nearly 52 percent were by foreigners.
And the number of patents filed by immigrants in the US for the same period is said to be 25.6 percent which is up by 337 percent since the year 1998.

Its not just in the US that the immigrant investors have been found to be making significant contribution towards start-up firms, in fact, foreigners seem to be leading in investments in several other nations too including Canada.
According to reports, a Vancouver entrepreneur group has been asking the federal government for starting ‘startup visas’ for foreign investors wanting to come and invest in Canada.
In a similar move, the US government is being asked for creation of a US startup visa and the bill is being sponsored by US Senators Richard Lugar, Republican of Indians and John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts.

The bill will provide any foreign entrepreneur a temporary US work visa if he obtains a minimum amount of $100,000 for investment for gaining US permanent residency.
In addition, the immigrant entrepreneur will also be responsible for creating at least five new jobs in the US in the period of two years, generate venture capital exceeding $1 million or $1 million sales each year.
Such changes in the federal policy of the US which favor potential foreign entrepreneurs would lead to growth and innovation in the US, agree several experts including a law professor at Yale University, Peter Schuck, and corporate secretary and vice president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, John Tyler.

Several nations like Australia, Germany, the UK and some other European nations already have changed their immigration process in order to allow foreign immigrant investors and high-skilled immigrants into their nations.

Source:  http://www.canadaupdates.com/content/immigrants-behind-quarter-us-start-firms-16233.html

Arizona Sheriff's Office in Bed with Drug Lord.

Three employees of the self-proclaimed strictest sheriff in the USA, were arrested on charges of trafficking people and drugs, authorities reported on Monday.

Maricopa county sheriff, Joe Arpaio said that three of his employees, two of them women, were among 12 people detained for forming an international narco trafficking network, centered in Phoenix.

One worker, Marcela Hernández, told authorities she was married to the presumed leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

See complete story:  El Universal

Education in Mexico: Changing the need to emigrate

By DAMIEN CAVE

The New York Times

AGUA NEGRA, Mexico — The extraordinary Mexican migration that delivered millions of illegal immigrants to the United States over the past 30 years has sputtered to a trickle, and research points to a surprising cause: Unheralded changes in Mexico have made staying home more attractive.
A growing body of evidence suggests a mix of developments — expanding economic and educational opportunities, border crime and shrinking families — are suppressing illegal traffic as much as economic slowdowns or immigrant crackdowns in the United States.
In the red-earth highlands of Jalisco, one of Mexico's top three states for emigration in the past century, a new dynamic has emerged. For a typical rural family like the Orozcos, heading to El Norte without papers no longer is an inevitable rite of passage. Instead, homes are filling with returning relatives; older brothers who once crossed illegally are awaiting visas; and the youngest Orozcos are staying put.
"I'm not going to go to the States because I'm more concerned with my studies," said Ángel Orozco, 18.
Indeed, at the new technological institute where he is earning a degree in industrial engineering, all the students in a recent class said they were better educated than their parents — and that they planned to stay in Mexico.
Douglas Massey, a director of the Mexican Migration Project at Princeton, an extensive, long-term survey in Mexican emigration hubs, said his research showed interest in heading to the United States for the first time had fallen to its lowest level since at least the 1950s.
"No one wants to hear it, but the [illegal] flow has already stopped," Massey said. "For the first time in 60 years, the net traffic has gone to zero and is probably a little bit negative."
The decline in illegal immigration, from a country responsible for roughly six of every 10 illegal immigrants in the United States, is stark. The Mexican census recently discovered 4 million more people in Mexico than had been projected, which officials attributed to a sharp decline in emigration.
U.S. census figures analyzed by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center also show the illegal Mexican population in the United States has shrunk and that fewer than 100,000 illegal border-crossers and visa-violators from Mexico settled in the United States in 2010, down from about 525,000 a year from 2000 to 2004. Although some advocates for more limited immigration say the Pew estimates that do not include short-term migrants, most experts agree far fewer illegal immigrants have been arriving.
The question is why. Experts and U.S. politicians from both parties generally look inward, arguing about the success or failure of border enforcement and tougher laws limiting illegal immigrants' rights — such as those passed in Alabama and Arizona. Deportations have reached record highs as total border apprehensions and apprehensions of Mexicans have fallen by more than 70 percent since 2000.
But Mexican immigration always has been defined by both the push (from Mexico) and the pull (of the United States). The decision to leave home involves a comparison, a cost-benefit analysis, and just as a Mexican baby boom and economic crises kicked off emigration waves in the 1980s and '90s, research shows the easing of demographic and economic pressures is helping keep departures in check.
In simple terms, Mexican families are smaller now, shrinking the pool of likely migrants. Despite the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, birth-control efforts have pushed down the fertility rate to about two children per woman from 6.8 in 1970, according to government figures. So, while Mexico added about 1 million potential job seekers annually in the 1990s, that figure has fallen to an average of 800,000 since 2007, according to birth records. It is expected to drop to 300,000 by 2030.
Even in larger families such as the Orozcos' — Ángel is the ninth of 10 children — the migration calculation has changed. Crossing "mojado," wet or illegally, has become more expensive and more dangerous, particularly with drug cartels dominating the border. Educational and employment opportunities also have expanded greatly. Per capita gross domestic product and family income have each jumped more than 45 percent since 2000, according to one prominent economist, Roberto Newell. Despite depictions of Mexico as "nearly a failed state," he argued, "the conventional wisdom is wrong."
A significant expansion of legal immigration — aided by U.S. consular officials — is also under way. Congress may be debating an overhaul of immigration policy, but in Mexico, visas without a congressionally mandated cap on how many people can enter have increased from 2006 to 2010, compared with the previous five years.
State Department figures show Mexicans who have become U.S. citizens have legally brought in 64 percent more immediate relatives, 220,500 from 2006 through 2010, compared with the figures for the previous five years. Tourist visas also are being granted at higher rates of around 89 percent, up from 67 percent, while U.S. farmers have legally hired 75 percent more temporary workers since 2006.

The recession cut into immigrant earnings in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, even as wages have risen in Mexico, according to World Bank figures. Jalisco's quality of life has improved in other ways, too. About a decade ago, the cluster of the Orozco ranches on Agua Negra's outskirts received electricity and running water. New census data shows a broad expansion of such services: water and trash collection, once unheard of outside cities, are available to more than 90 percent of Jalisco's homes. Dirt floors now are found in only 3 percent of the state's houses, down from 12 percent in 1990.

Still, education represents the most meaningful change. The census shows the number of Jalisco's senior high schools or preparatory schools for students aged 15 to 18 increased to 724 in 2009, from 360 in 2000, far outpacing population growth. The Technological Institute of Arandas, where Ángel studies engineering, is one of 13 science campuses created in Jalisco since 2000 — a major reason professionals with a bachelor's degree or higher also more than doubled to 821,983 in 2010, up from 405,415 in 2000. Similar changes have occurred elsewhere, and data from secondary schools like the one the Orozcos attended in Agua Negra suggest the trend will continue.

See complete article:  Illegal entries from Mexico slow to trickle

Reduction in Immigration from Mexico - It's the economy, stupid!

According to BBC Mundo reporter Alberto Nájar, fewer undocumented Mexicans are coming to the US.  There appears to be several reasons for this phenomenon which began 3 years ago:

1. The economy in Mexico is improving slightly, providing more opportunity without emigrating.
2. The economy in the US has been in crisis, leaving less opportunity here: fewer jobs and lower wages.
3. Emigrants must run the gauntlet of narco thugs just to reach their northern border.
4. Border surveillance has increased.
5. Anti-immigrant laws have increased in many regions of the US.  The local climate is much less friendly after arrival in many states.

The result is having effects in communities in Mexico.

See the following article in BBC Mundo:

El "sueño americano" atrae a menos mexicanos

Alberto Nájar

BBC Mundo, Ciudad de México

La vigilancia en la frontera sur de Estados Unidos influye en la caída migratoria

Hace unos meses las autoridades de Michoacán, en el oeste de México, notaron un súbito aumento en los estudiantes matriculados en las escuelas. También subieron las solicitudes a sus programas sociales, y después hubo informes de que las fiestas en algunos pueblos fueron más concurridas de lo normal.

En los tres hechos hay un común denominador: bajó la migración de mexicanos hacia Estados Unidos.

De hecho, en el último censo de población el gubernamental Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Geografía (Inegi), detectó más personas de las esperadas pues muchos que pensaban emigrar decidieron quedarse.

El fenómeno empieza a cambiar la vida en muchas comunidades de México, especialmente las que dependen de remesas o tienen problemas de marginación. Michoacán, uno de los estados con mayor flujo migratorio del país, es un ejemplo.
El cambio demográfico genera aprietos económicos al gobierno local, porque no alcanza el presupuesto para atender a las familias que se quedaron sin remesas, volvieron de Estados Unidos o fueron deportados.
"Hay más demanda. Tenemos miles de personas más en el estado y todos necesitan un empleo, comer, generar recursos", le dice a BBC Mundo Zaida Mandujano, secretaria del Migrante de Michoacán.

Remesas sistémicas

"El problema ya no es sólo cruzar el desierto sino de que te asalten y te maten antes de llegar a la frontera"

Jorge Durand, especialista en migración, Universidad de Guadalajara

¿Por qué bajó la migración a Estados Unidos?
Hay varias respuestas, dice Jorge Durand, académico de la Universidad de Guadalajara y uno de los pioneros en la investigación del fenómeno en México.
La primera es la crisis económica estadounidense que afectó sobre todo a las áreas donde trabaja la mayoría de los indocumentados mexicanos, es decir, la construcción y servicios.
Otra respuesta es el clima de inseguridad en México por la guerra contra y entre carteles, que hace más peligroso el viaje.
"El problema ya no es sólo cruzar el desierto sino de que te asalten y te maten antes de llegar a la frontera", explica Durand a BBC Mundo. "El riesgo que había en años anteriores se multiplicó por diez".
Una explicación más es que quienes financiaban la migración indocumentada ya no pueden hacerlo.
En el último siglo los mexicanos establecieron una extensa red de familiares y amigos que les acogían y ayudaban a conseguir empleo, además de prestar dinero para cubrir la cuota de los "coyotes", como se llama a los traficantes de humanos.
El mecanismo, conocido como "remesa sistémica", dejó de funcionar hace tres años.
"El que está allá o no tiene trabajo, o vive una situación precaria en su empleo. La mayoría no tiene dinero para prestar a los familiares", explica Durand.

Cambios

El flujo migratorio también bajó por el clima anti inmigrante en varias regiones de Estados Unidos, sobre todo en donde los congresos locales autorizaron nuevas más leyes más restrictivas contra los indocumentados, y también porque aumentó la vigilancia en la frontera sur de ese país.
Todos estos factores hacen más cara la decisión de emigrar, pues contrario a otros años ahora la ganancia es menor. Hace una década la diferencia salarial entre México y Estados Unidos era de 8 a 1 pero se redujo a la mitad, afirma Durand. Otros expertos coinciden en que la situación socioeconómica de muchas comunidades mexicanas ha mejorado en la última década.

Zaida Mandujano, secretaria del Migrante de Michoacán, reconoce el impacto que la caída de la migración tiene en sus comunidades.

Así, muchos mexicanos piensan dos veces antes de salir del país lo cual complica la situación de las comunidades de origen, cuenta Zaida Mandujano.
En muchos municipios aún sigue la pobreza que impulsó a la migración, algo que no cambiará en el corto plazo según han reconocido las autoridades.
"En los últimos tres años ha habido cambios radicales, y los gobiernos deben adaptarse a la realidad del fenómeno", reconoce la secretaria del Migrante.

Joroba migratoria

Según Durand la caída en la migración es un fenómeno temporal, pues en la medida que mejore la economía estadounidense habrá más oportunidades de empleo para los indocumentados.
Pero es difícil volver a las cifras que hubo en la década pasada, cuando emigró un promedio de 500.000 mexicanos cada año.
Ahora el flujo anual de indocumentados es menor a 300.000 personas, según datos oficiales.
Esto no significa que el fenómeno se detenga en el corto plazo, sobre todo porque la economía mexicana no crece al ritmo necesario.
A este proceso los especialistas le llaman "joroba migratoria", es decir, durante varios años el flujo se mantiene en crecimiento, pero después empieza a bajar. Algo que ya ocurre en México, según los especialistas.

Change takes courage, Mr. President

Washington State families affected by our broken immigration system.

No Irish Need Apply: They are a Barbarous People

Dedicated only to leisure and laziness, this is truly a barbarous people.

The Politics of Immigration

The Republican Party is increasingly becoming an exclusionary party of white anglos.  As the demographics of our population changes, Republicans are choosing to sideline themselves.

Send them HOME !

They are stealing our jobs.  They aren't paying any taxes.  They are a drain on our society.  They are having babies so they can claim social services and stay in our country.  They don't speak our language.  Send them HOME !

Send us your huddled masses.

 Irish immigrants a century ago.

E-Verify fails to detect illegal aliens: 54% failure rate

Raul A. Reyes responds to the L.A. Times Op-Ed article on E-Verify:

"Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) advocate the mandatory use of E-Verify to preserve jobs for Americans and crack down on illegal immigration. As a supporter of comprehensive reform, I read their Op-Ed article with great interest and was disheartened by their faulty reasoning, especially in light of the considerable influence the two members of Congress wield over our nation's immigration policy."

He adds that in a test of the system by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, it was found that E-Verify cleared 54% of undocumented workers to work... and that the Department of Homeland Security estimates it would have to spend $765 million on staff, technology and training if the program were to go national and small businesses would have to pay about $2.6 BILLION each year to use the program."

It is clear the intent is not to create jobs for U.S. workers.  Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) are trying to deport as  many immigrants as quickly as possible, before a way can be found for them to work toward becoming citizens.