According to a PEW Hispanic Center report, the number of illegal immigrants entering to the U.S. over the past decade or so, has dropped by approximately 66%.
A comparison of specific time frames within a ten year span have verified that the research appears to be correct.
For instance, between the years 2005 and 2007 approximately 850,000 Mexican illegal’s slipped across the border undocumented and without the required legal papers.
However, between 2007 and 2009 those figures dropped to 300,000.
A researcher in the field asserted that the flux in the flow of illegals has been due to the recession and a lack of available jobs.
The unemployment figures for unauthorized workers hovers at a rate of about 10 % higher than U.S. born residents and legal residents.
It has also been theorized that the drop in illegal immigration may be due to increased law enforcement efforts and deportations in recent months arising from a public uproar over undocumented aliens in the United States and the subsequent draining of essential resources at medical facilities, schools, and in the community-at-large.
Also, it's gotten tougher and more expensive to cross the border illegally, allegedly.
"We know that it's harder to sneak across the border than it was four or five years ago...virtually everyone who sneaks across the border uses a coyote now and the cost has gone up. The increase of the border patrol around cities and ports of entry have pushed the flows to more remote places," noted Jeffrey Passel, a Senior demographer at PEW.
Mark Krikorian, a director at the center for Immigration Studies made his own astute oberservations.
"The findings point to...a consistent decrease of the illegal population over time through (law) enforcement."
Douglas Massey, a sociologist at Princeton University, assessed the situation this way.
"Life's gotten pretty miserable for immigrants in the United States."
In contrast, there has been a slight increase in legal immigrants to these shores in the past decade.
In conclusion, the researchers note that the future trajectory of illegal immigration will likely depend on the strength of the country's economic recovery and the level of enforcement of immigration laws.
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