Home > The Border Line > Archives > 2008 > July > 30
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Are illegal immigrants leaving the United States?
Illegal immigrants are going home.
That is the conclusion of a new study which says that stepped-up enforcement efforts are working, causing thousands of illegal immigrants to self-deport.
The population has declined 11 percent since last summer — from 12.5 million to 11.2 million, according to the report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that advocates lower levels of immigration.
“The evidence is powerful and consistent that enforcement is having the desired effect,” said Steven Camarota, the report’s main author and director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.
The study also said that the nation’s economic slowdown is partly responsible for the decline.
Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that the report proves that enforcement works.
“Opponents of immigration enforcement claim that there are only two ways to address illegal immigration: amnesty or mass deportation. But there is another and better option and that is to simply enforce current laws,” he said, in a statement.
But Angela Kelley, director of the Immigrant Policy Center, said the study lacks hard data and has “faulty logic.”
She criticized the authors for determining “likely” illegal immigrants by using a certain percentage of less educated, foreign-born Hispanic adults who are 18 to 40 years old.
“The authors report confidently about a population that is nearly impossible to accurately measure,” she said.