The Washington Post reports that immigration has increased during the two-decades of increasing border security and that the largely neglected issue of jobs is the real driver of illegal immigration.
As our Los Angeles immigration lawyers reported earlier this week on our California Immigration Attorney Blog, Obama has approved a $500 million plan to add 1,200 soldiers to the border. The move is largely political and will have little practical effect -- the 20,000 troops already patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border is double the number of troops that were stationed on the border in 2004.
In an apparent effort to please hardline Republican's, Obama acknowledged the need to tough border security, both in a Fourth of July speech on immigration reform and in moving additional troops to the border on Aug. 1. The Post noted that "sealing" the border was a precondition of Republicans during 2007's failed attempt to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Congress ordered more than 670 miles of border fencing, walls and spikes in 2006 and that work in nearing completion at a cost of $4 billion. Border patrol costs another $4 billion annually. Including the cost of National Guard troops, the cost is about $10 billion a year.
Research by Princeton University sociologist Douglas Massey found that increasing border security actually discourages seasonal laborers from going back to Mexico when they are not working. The Post article even contends that Arizona's tough new immigration law is a byproduct of tighter border security in Texas and California, which sent immigrants following the path of least resistance through Arizona's Sonoran Desert.
For 150 years, American's immigration levels have been trailing indicators of its economy -- increased immigration follows good economic times and low immigration levels follow economic downturns.
The Great Recession has been no different. In the past three years, more than a million illegal immigrants have left the country, or about 10 percent of the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.
The Los Angeles immigration attorneys at HOWARD | NASSIRI offer confidential appointments to discuss your rights. Call 1-800-872-5925 or contact us through this website.
